Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
An S-system over a monoid S is a set A together with a function ø: A × S → A such that (a, 1) ø = a and (a, st) ø = ((a, s) ø, t) ø for all a ∈ A and for all s, t ∈ S. So an S-system is a set on which S acts unitarily on the right. For (a, s) ø we write simply as: the notions of S-homomorphism, S-subsystem etc. are defined in the obvious manner. Many papers have been written characterizing monoids by properties of their S-systems; here we are concerned with injectivity and a related concept, absolute purity. Further details of the terms we use are given in Section 2.