Matrix representations of semigroups

Abstract

In a series of papers [6], [7], [8], [10], Munn has considered the problem of constructing all irreducible representations of a semigroup by matrices over a field. In [10], he showed how to construct all the irreducible representations of an arbitrary inverse semigroup from those of associated Brandt semigroups. In this paper, we generalize the method of [10] to give a construction for the irreducible representations of an arbitrary semigroup from those of certain associated semigroups