On the isomorphism problem for power semigroups

DOI10.1007/978-3-031-75326-8_20MaRDI QIDQ6890353zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Salvatore Tringali

Publication date 3 December 2025

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-75326-8_20

zbMATH Keywords

cancellative semigroups isomorphism problems numerical monoids power semigroups setwise products sumsets

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General structure theory for semigroups (20M10) Commutative semigroups (20M14)

Review text

Let \(S\) be a semigroup. On the power set of \(S\), denoted by \(\mathcal{P}(S)\), one can define the following binary operation: \(XY=\{xy : x \in X, y \in Y\}\). With this operation, \(\mathcal{P}(S)\) is a semigroup.\N\NThis paper addresses the problem of determining whether for two semigroups \(S\) and \(T\), an isomorphism between \(\mathcal{P}(S)\) and \(\mathcal{P}(T)\) implies an isomorphism between \(S\) and \(T\). The author solves this problem for cancellative and commutative semigroups (actually commutativity of one of the semigroups is enough).\N\NAn element \(a\) in a semigroup is said to be left cancellative if the map \(x \mapsto ax\) is injective; right cancellative elements are defined similarly. An element is cancellative if it is both left and right cancellative. A semigroup is cancellative if all its elements are cancellative.\N\NGiven a semigroup \(S\), a subsemigroup \(P\) of \(\mathcal{P}(S)\) is called downward complete if (1) for every \(s\in S\) there exists \(X \in P\) such that \(s\in X\) and (2) every non-empty subset of every element of \(P\) is also in \(P\).\N\NThe author proves that if \(S\) is a commutative semigroup and \(P\) is a downward complete subsemigroup of \(\mathcal{P}(S)\), then the only cancellative elements of \(P\) are the singletons \(\{s\}\) with \(s\) a cancellative element of \(S\). With this result, the main theorem is proved: if \(S\) and \(T\) are semigroups and either of them is commutative, then every isomorphism between a downward complete subsemigroup of \(\mathcal{P}(S)\) and a downward complete subsemigroup of \(\mathcal{P}(T)\) induces an isomorphism between \(S\) and \(T\).\N\NAs \(\mathcal{P}(S)\) is a downward complete subsemigroup of itself, the main theorem implies that if \(S\) and \(T\) are semigroups and either of them is commutative, then an isomorphism between \(\mathcal{P}(S)\) and \(\mathcal{P}(T)\) induces an isomorphism between \(S\) and \(T\). The other direction is easy to prove: an isomorphism between \(S\) and \(T\) always induces an isomorphism between \(\mathcal{P}(S)\) and \(\mathcal{P}(T)\).\N\NAnother interesting downward complete subsemigroup of \(\mathcal{P}(S)\) is the set of all finite subsets of \(S\), denoted by \(\mathcal{P}_{\mathrm{fin}}(S)\). As a corollary of the main theorem, the author proves that if \(S\) and \(T\) are semigroups and either of them is commutative, then \(\mathcal{P}_{\mathrm{fin}}(S)\) and \(\mathcal{P}_{\mathrm{fin}}(T)\) are isomorphic if and only if \(S\) and \(T\) are isomorphic.\N\NFor the entire collection see [Zbl 1566.16001].

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