This book is an indispensable source for anyone with an interest in semigroup theory or whose research overlaps with this increasingly important and active field of mathematics. It clearly emphasizes "pure" semigroup theory, in particular the various classes of regular semigroups. More than 150 exercises, accompanied by relevant references to the literature, give pointers to areas of the subject not explicitly covered in the text.

This book introduces recently developed ideas and techniques in semigroup theory, providing a handy reference guide previously unavailable in a single volume. The opening chapter provides sufficient background to enable the reader to follow any of the subsequent chapters, and would by itself be suitable for a first course in semigroup theory. The second chapter gives an account of free inverse semigroups leading to proofs of the McAlister P-theorems. Subsequent chapters have the underlying theme of diagrams and mappings, and the new material includes the theory of biordered sets of Nambooripad and Easdown, the semigroup diagrams of Remmers and Jackson with applications to the one-relator, and other word problems, a short proof of Isbell's Zigzag theorem with applications to epimorphisms and amalgams, together with combinatorial, probabilistic and graphical techniques used to prove results including Schein's Covering Theorem and Howie's Gravity Formula for finite full transformation semigroups. Nearly two hundred exercises serve the dual purpose of illustrating the richness of the subject while allowing the reader to come to grips with the material.

This is the first book about commutative semigroups in general. Emphasis is on structure but the other parts of the theory are at least surveyed and a full set of about 850 references is included. The book is intended for mathematicians who do research on semigroups or who encounter commutative semigroups in their research.

This work offers concise coverage of the structure theory of semigroups. It examines constructions and descriptions of semigroups and emphasizes finite, commutative, regular and inverse semigroups. Many structure theorems on regular and commutative semigroups are introduced.;College or university bookstores may order five or more copies at a special student price which is available upon request from Marcel Dekker, Inc.