Structure of weak automorphism groups of mono-unary algebras (Q5950776)

A permutation \(\tau \) of \(A\) is said to be a weak automorphism of an algebra \({\mathcal A}=(A;F)\) if the induced mapping \(\tau ^\ast :A^{A^n}\rightarrow A^{A^n}\) defined by the formula \[ (\tau ^\ast f)(x_1,\ldots ,x_n)=\tau ^{-1}f(\tau x_1,\ldots ,\tau x_n) \] maps the set \(T^{(n)}({\mathcal A})\) of all \(n\)-ary term polynomials of \(\mathcal {A}\) onto itself. The set \(\text{WAUT }\mathcal {A}\) of all weak automorphisms of \({\mathcal A}\) forms a subgroup of the symmetric group \(S_A\) on \(A\). Except for some special algebras (Post algebras, linear spaces, finite fields) the structure of the group \(\text{WAUT }{\mathcal A}\) is unknown. In this paper the groups \(\text{WAUT }{\mathcal A}\) for mono-unary algebras \(\mathcal {A}\) are described. Using this, infinitely many mono-unary algebras \((A;f)\) are found such that \(f^{n+1}=f\) with trivial groups of weak automorphisms (the so-called w-rigid algebras). It is shown that for every infinite cardinal \textbf{m} there are \(2^{\mathbf m}\) non-isomorphic w-rigid mono-unary algebras of cardinality \textbf{m}.