11,413 research outputs found
M\"obius Functions and Semigroup Representation Theory II: Character formulas and multiplicities
We generalize the character formulas for multiplicities of irreducible
constituents from group theory to semigroup theory using Rota's theory of
M\"obius inversion. The technique works for a large class of semigroups
including: inverse semigroups, semigroups with commuting idempotents,
idempotent semigroups and semigroups with basic algebras. Using these tools we
are able to give a complete description of the spectra of random walks on
finite semigroups admitting a faithful representation by upper triangular
matrices over the complex numbers. These include the random walks on chambers
of hyperplane arrangements studied by Bidigare, Hanlon, Rockmere, Brown and
Diaconis. Applications are also given to decomposing tensor powers and exterior
products of rook matrix representations of inverse semigroups, generalizing and
simplifying earlier results of Solomon for the rook monoid.Comment: Some minor typos corrected and references update
The Identity Correspondence Problem and its Applications
In this paper we study several closely related fundamental problems for words
and matrices. First, we introduce the Identity Correspondence Problem (ICP):
whether a finite set of pairs of words (over a group alphabet) can generate an
identity pair by a sequence of concatenations. We prove that ICP is undecidable
by a reduction of Post's Correspondence Problem via several new encoding
techniques.
In the second part of the paper we use ICP to answer a long standing open
problem concerning matrix semigroups: "Is it decidable for a finitely generated
semigroup S of square integral matrices whether or not the identity matrix
belongs to S?". We show that the problem is undecidable starting from dimension
four even when the number of matrices in the generator is 48. From this fact,
we can immediately derive that the fundamental problem of whether a finite set
of matrices generates a group is also undecidable. We also answer several
question for matrices over different number fields. Apart from the application
to matrix problems, we believe that the Identity Correspondence Problem will
also be useful in identifying new areas of undecidable problems in abstract
algebra, computational questions in logic and combinatorics on words.Comment: We have made some proofs clearer and fixed an important typo from the
published journal version of this article, see footnote 3 on page 1
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