Choosing the set A = { 1, 2 } as the underlying set having two elements, sixteen binary operations can be defined in A. These operations are shown in the table below. In the table, a matrix of the form
indicates a binary operation on A having the following Cayley table.
In this table:
The Cayley table for the semigroup ({0,1}, ∧ {\displaystyle \wedge } ) is given below:
This is the simplest non-trivial example of a semigroup that is not a group. This semigroup has an identity element, 1, making it a monoid. It is also commutative. It is not a group because the element 0 does not have an inverse, and is not even a cancellative semigroup because we cannot cancel the 0 in the equation 1·0 = 0·0.
This semigroup arises in various contexts. For instance, if we choose 1 to be the truth value "true" and 0 to be the truth value "false" and the operation to be the logical connective "and", we obtain this semigroup in logic. It is isomorphic to the monoid {0,1} under multiplication. It is also isomorphic to the semigroup
under matrix multiplication.
The Cayley table for the semigroup (Z2, +2) is given below:
This group is isomorphic to the cyclic group Z2 and the symmetric group S2.
Main article: Semigroup with three elements
Let A be the three-element set {1, 2, 3}. Altogether, a total of 39 = 19683 different binary operations can be defined on A. 113 of the 19683 binary operations determine 24 nonisomorphic semigroups, or 18 non-equivalent semigroups (with equivalence being isomorphism or anti-isomorphism). 1 With the exception of the group with three elements, each of these has one (or more) of the above two-element semigroups as subsemigroups.2 For example, the set {−1, 0, 1} under multiplication is a semigroup of order 3, and contains both {0, 1} and {−1, 1} as subsemigroups.
Algorithms and computer programs have been developed for determining nonisomorphic finite semigroups of a given order. These have been applied to determine the nonisomorphic semigroups of small order.345 The number of nonisomorphic semigroups with n elements, for n a nonnegative integer, is listed under OEIS: A027851 in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS: A001423 lists the number of non-equivalent semigroups, and OEIS: A023814 the number of associative binary operations, out of a total of nn2, determining a semigroup.
Friðrik Diego; Kristín Halla Jónsdóttir (July 2008). "Associative Operations on a Three-Element Set" (PDF). The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast. 5 (2 & 3): 257–268. doi:10.54870/1551-3440.1106. S2CID 118704099. Retrieved 6 February 2014. http://www.math.umt.edu/tmme/vol5no2and3/TMME_vol5nos2and3_a8_pp.257_268.pdf ↩
Andreas Distler, Classification and enumeration of finite semigroups Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine, PhD thesis, University of St. Andrews http://bcc2009.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Theses/andreasDthesis.pdf ↩
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John A Hildebrant (2001). Handbook of Finite Semigroup Programs. (Preprint).[1] http://www.math.lsu.edu/~preprint/2001/jah2001a.pdf ↩