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