Products of two idempotent transformations over arbitrary sets and vector spaces (Q4397364)

It has long been observed by various people that results obtained about the full transformation semigroup \(T(X)\) on a set \(X\) and the semigroup \(L(V)\) of all linear transformations of a vector space \(V\) are not only similar in nature but the proofs of the results are similar as well. In [Fundam. Math. 50, 333-340 (1962; Zbl 0145.01902)], \textit{W. Narkiewicz} introduced a class of algebras, referred to by subsequent authors as independence algebras, which includes finite sets and finite-dimensional vector spaces as special cases. Let \(\text{End}(A)\) denote the endomorphism semigroup of an independence algebra \(A\) of finite rank. In 1992, \textit{J. Fountain} and \textit{A. Lewin} [Proc. Edinb. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 35, No. 3, 493-500 (1992; Zbl 0794.20066)] proved a result about the subsemigroup of \(\text{End}(A)\) generated by idempotents from which well-known results about \(T(X)\) and \(L(V)\) follow immediately. The present author contributes to this line of research by finding necessary and sufficient conditions in order for an element of \(\text{End}(A)\) to be the composition of two proper idempotents when the independence algebra \(A\) satisfies an additional condition. As in the case of previous results about the endomorphism semigroups of independence algebras, her result has immediate applications to both \(T(X)\) and \(L(V)\). For example, a transformation \(\alpha\in T(X)\) is the composition of two proper idempotents if and only if there exist distinct elements \(x,y\in X\) such that \(x\alpha=y\alpha\) and for every \(y\in X\alpha\) such that \(y\alpha\neq y\), there exists an element \(x\in X\setminus X\alpha\) such that \(x\alpha=y\).