Endomorphism nearrings: Foundations, problems and recent results (Q1808822)

There has been a great deal of interest recently in the subject of endomorphism nearrings, that is nearrings generated by a semigroup of endomorphisms of a group \(G\). This is a survey paper on this topic. The first section introduces nearrings and emphasizes the role played by endomorphisms, and the links with rings. Next the authors introduce distributively generated (d.g.) nearrings and endomorphism nearrings. They use six nearrings associated with a group: 4 endomorphism nearrings \(P(G)\subseteq I(G)\subseteq A(G)\subseteq E(G)\) generated respectively by the identity automorphism, the inner automorphisms, all the automorphisms and all the endomorphisms. The last two are \(M_0(G)\) and \(M(G)\), the nearrings consisting of all identity preserving maps and all maps, respectively. The background to this situation is given in some detail. Particular problems are considered in the rest of the paper. First results concerning \(E\), \(A\) or \(I\) groups are given, i. e. groups for which \(E(G)\), \(A(G)\) or \(I(G)\) are rings, with \(G\) non-Abelian. Whereas the results for \(I\)-groups are very satisfactory, \(E\) and \(A\) groups are much more awkward, and need more work. The final section deals with the size and structure of the four nearrings \(I(G)\subseteq A(G)\subseteq E(G)\subseteq M_0(G)\) for eight classes of groups: the symmetric and alternating groups and six classes of linear groups over finite fields. There is a great deal of information here, most of it stated without proof, and in some cases as yet unpublished. This is a useful reference work for those who wish to learn about the area.