Representations of the rook monoid. (Q1858220)

Let \(R\) be the symmetric inverse semigroup on the set \(I_n=\{1,2,\dots,n\}\) and let \(S_n\) be the symmetric group on the set \(I_n\). The rook monoid is the natural representation of \(R\) by zero-one matrices which have at most one entry equal to \(1\) in each row and column. Various aspects of the representation theory of \(R\) over a field \(F\) of characteristic zero are considered. The paper contains six sections. In section 1, Munn's representation theory of finite inverse semigroups is developed. In section 2, the irreducible representations of \(R\) are described. In section 3, Munn's character table for \(R\) is determined. In section 4, the action of \(R\) on the polynomial algebra \(F[x_1,\dots,x_n]\) is studied. In section 5, the action of \(R\) on tensors by ``place permutations'' is described. In section 6, a presentation for \(R\) in terms of the Moore-Coxeter generators for \(S_n\) is considered. The element \(\nu\in R\) which corresponds to a nilpotent Jordan block of the natural matrix representation is described.