Subspace semigroups (Q5925794)

For a finite-dimensional algebra \(A\) over an infinite field \(K\), the subspace semigroup \({\mathcal S}(A)\) consists of all subspaces of \(A\) with operation \(V*W=\text{lin}_KVW\), the linear span of \(VW\) over \(K\). The authors describe the structure of \({\mathcal S}(A)\), showing in particular that, similar to any linear algebraic semigroup, \({\mathcal S}(A)\) is strongly \(\pi\)-regular; the authors also describe its regular elements and regular \(\mathcal J\)-classes. As a key intermediate step to achieve these, for any irreducible linear algebraic monoid \(M\), they study the semigroup \({\mathcal C}(M)\) consisting of all irreducible closed subsets with operation \(X\cdot Y=\overline{XY}\), and transfer the information to \({\mathcal S}(A)\) via the natural onto homomorphism \({\mathcal C}(A)\to{\mathcal S}(A)\). For the sake of potential applications the focus is on the case of the full matrix algebra.