Quasi-idempotents in certain transformation semigroups (Q6585983)

An element \( q \) of a semigroup \( S \) is called a \textit{quasi-idempotent} if \( q \neq q^2 = q^4 \). Let \( P_n \) and \( T_n \) be the semigroups of partial transformations and full transformations, respectively. Let \(\textrm{qrank}(S) = \textrm{min}\{ |A| : \langle A \rangle = S, A \subseteq Q(S) \}\), where \( Q(S) \) is the set of all quasi-idempotents of \( S \). The author describes the quasi-idempotents in \( P_n \).\NLet \( PK(n,r) = \{ \alpha \in P_n : | \textrm{im}(\alpha) | \leq r \} \) and \( K(n,r) = \{ \alpha \in T_n : |\textrm{im}(\alpha)| \leq r \} \) where \( 1 \leq r \leq n-1 \). She also proves that for \( 2 \leq r \leq n-1 \), \N\[\N\textrm{qrank}(PK(n,r)) = \textrm{rank}(PK(n,r)) = S(n+1, r+1),\N\]\Nand that \N\[\N\textrm{qrank}(K(n,r)) = \textrm{rank}(K(n,r)) = S(n,r),\N\]\Nwhere \( S(n,r) \) denotes the Stirling number of the second kind.