Volodymyr Mazorchuk - Böcker

The aim of this monograph is to give a self-contained introduction to the modern theory of finite transformation semigroups with a strong emphasis on concrete examples and combinatorial applications. It covers the following topics on the examples of the three classical finite transformation semigroups: transformations and semigroups, ideals and Green's relations, subsemigroups, congruences, endomorphisms, nilpotent subsemigroups, presentations, actions on sets, linear representations, cross-sections and variants. The book contains many exercises and historical comments and is directed first of all to both graduate and postgraduate students looking for an introduction to the theory of transformation semigroups, but also to tutors and researchers.

This book is directed primarily at undergraduate and postgraduate students interested to get acquainted with the representation theory of Lie algebras. The book treats the case of the smallest simple Lie algebra, namely, the Lie algebra sl_2. It contains classical contents including the description of all finite-dimensional modules and an introduction to the universal enveloping algebras with its primitive ideals, alongside non-classical contents including the description of all simple weight modules, the category of all weight modules, a detailed description of the category O, and especially, a description of all simple modules. The book also contains an account of a new research direction: the categorification of simple finite-dimensional modules.