Character theory of monoids over an arbitrary field.

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Publication:2344836



Abstract: The basic character theory of finite monoids over the complex numbers was developed in the sixties and seventies based on work of Munn, Ponizovsky, McAlister, Rhodes and Zalcstein. In particular, McAlister determined the space of functions spanned by the irreducible characters of a finite monoid over mathbbC and the ring of virtual characters. In this paper, we present the corresponding results over an arbitrary field. As a consequence, we obtain a quick proof of the theorem of Berstel and Reutenauer that the characteristic function of a regular cyclic language is a virtual character of the free monoid. This is a crucial ingredient in their proof of the rationality of the zeta function of a sofic shift in symbolic dynamics.


Two elements of a finite monoid \(M\) are character equivalent over a field \(K\) iff every irreducible character of \(M\) over \(K\) agrees on these elements. Known results about character equivalence for the field of complex numbers are generalized for an arbitrary field \(K\); it is proved that the characters of inequivalent irreducible representations of a finite monoid over an arbitrary field are non-zero, distinct and linearly independent; from this follows a quick proof that the characteristic function of a regular cyclic language is a virtual character of the free monoid.



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