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A transversal property for permutation groups motivated by partial transformations

Publication . Araújo, João; Araújo, João Pedro; Bentz, Wolfram; Cameron, Peter; Spiga, Pablo

In this paper we introduce the definition of the (k, l)-universal transversal property for permutation groups, which is a refinement of the definition of k-universal transversal property, which in turn is a refine- ment of the classical definition of k-homogeneity for permutation groups. In particular, a group possesses the (2, n)-universal transversal property if and only if it is primitive; it possesses the (2, 2)-universal transversal property if and only if it is 2-homogeneous. Up to a few undecided cases, we give a classification of groups satisfying the (k, l)-universal transversal property, for k ≥ 3. Then we apply this result for studying regular semigroups of partial transformations.

2021-05-01Journal article

Open access

Primitive permutation groups and strongly factorizable transformation semigroups

Publication . Araújo, João; Bentz, Wolfram; Cameron, Peter

Let Ω be a finite set and T (Ω) be the full transformation monoid on Ω. The rank of a transformation t ∈ T (Ω) is the natural number |Ωt|. Given A ⊆ T (Ω), denote by 〈A〉 the semigroup generated by A. Let k be a fixed natural number such that 2 ≤ k ≤ |Ω|. In the first part of this paper we (almost) classify the permutation groups G on Ω such that for all rank k transformations t ∈ T (Ω), every element in St := 〈G, t〉 can be written as a product eg, where e2 = e ∈ St and g ∈ G. In the second part we prove, among other results, that if S ≤ T (Ω) and G is the normalizer of S in the symmetric group on Ω, then the semigroup SG is regular if and only if S is regular. (Recall that a semigroup S is regular if for all s ∈ S there exists s′ ∈ S such that s = ss′s.) The paper ends with a list of problems.

2021-01-01Journal article

Open access

The existential transversal property: a generalization of homogeneity and its impact on semigroups

Publication . Araújo, João; Bentz, Wolfram; Cameron, Peter

Let G be a permutation group of degree n, and k a positive integer with k ≤ n. We say that G has the k-existential transversal property, or k-et, if there exists a k-subset A (of the domain Ω) whose orbit un- der G contains transversals for all k-partitions P of Ω. This property is a substantial weakening of the k-universal transversal property, or k-ut, investigated by the first and third author, which required this condition to hold for all k-subsets A of the domain Ω. Our first task in this paper is to investigate the k-et property and to decide which groups satisfy it. For example, it is known that for k < 6 there are several families of k-transitive groups, but for k ≥ 6 the only ones are alternating or symmetric groups; here we show that in the k-et context the threshold is 8, that is, for 8 ≤ k ≤ n/2, the only transitive groups with k-et are the symmetric and alternating groups; this is best possible since the Mathieu group M24 (degree 24) has 7-et. We determine all groups with k-et for 4 ≤ k ≤ n/2, up to some unresolved cases for k = 4, 5, and describe the property for k = 2, 3 in permutation group language. These considerations essentially answer Problem 5 proposed in the paper on k-ut referred to above; we also slightly improve the classification of groups possessing the k-ut property. In that earlier paper, the results were applied to semigroups, in particular, to the question of when the semigroup 〈G, t〉 is regular, where t is a map of rank k (with k < n/2); this turned out to be equivalent to the k-ut property. The question investigated here is when there is a k-subset A of the domain such that 〈G, t〉 is regular for all maps t with image A. This turns out to be much more delicate; the k-et property (with A as witnessing set) is a necessary condition, and the combination of k-et and (k − 1)-ut is sufficient, but the truth lies somewhere between. Given the knowledge that a group under consideration has the necessary condition of k-et, the regularity question for k ≤ n/2 is solved except for one sporadic group. The paper ends with a number of problems on combinatorics, permutation groups and transformation semigroups, and their linear analogues.

2021Journal article

Restricted access

Matrix theory for independence algebras

Publication . Araújo, João; Bentz, Wolfram; Cameron, Peter; Kinyon, Michael; Konieczny, Janusz

A universal algebra A with underlying set A is said to be a matroid algebra if (A, 〈·〉), where 〈·〉 denotes the operator subalgebra generated by, is a matroid. A matroid algebra is said to be an independence algebra if every mapping α : X → A defined on a minimal generating X of A can be extended to an endomorphism of A. These algebras are particularly well-behaved generalizations of vector spaces, and hence they naturally appear in several branches of mathematics, such as model theory, group theory, and semigroup theory. It is well known that matroid algebras have a well-defined notion of dimension. Let A be any independence algebra of finite dimension n, with at least two elements. Denote by End(A) the monoid of endomorphisms of A. In the 1970s, Glazek proposed the problem of extending the matrix theory for vector spaces to a class of universal algebras which included independence algebras. In this paper, we answer that problem by developing a theory of matrices for (almost all) finite-dimensional independence algebras. In the process of solving this, we explain the relation between the classification of inde- pendence algebras obtained by Urbanik in the 1960s, and the classification of finite indepen- dence algebras up to endomorphism-equivalence obtained by Cameron and Szab ́o in 2000. (This answers another question by experts on independence algebras.) We also extend the classification of Cameron and Szab ́o to all independence algebras. The paper closes with a number of questions for experts on matrix theory, groups, semi- groups, universal algebra, set theory or model theory.

2022-06-01Journal article

Open access