Semigroup (mathematics)

Group-like structures
	Totality	Associativity	Identity	Invertibility	Commutativity
Semicategory	Unneeded	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Category	Unneeded	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded
Groupoid	Unneeded	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded
Magma	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Quasigroup	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Required	Unneeded
Loop	Required	Unneeded	Required	Required	Unneeded
Semigroup	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Monoid	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded
Group	Required	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded
Abelian group	Required	Required	Required	Required	Required
^α Closure, which is used in many sources, is an equivalent axiom to totality, though defined differently.

In mathematics, a semigroup is an algebraic structure consisting of a set together with an associative binary operation. The binary operation of a semigroup is most often denoted multiplicatively: x·y, or simply xy, denotes the result of applying the semigroup operation to the ordered pair (x, y). Associativity is formally expressed as that (x·y)·z = x·(y·z) for all x, y and z in the semigroup.

The name "semigroup" originates in the fact that a semigroup generalizes a group by preserving only associativity and closure under the binary operation from the axioms defining a group. From the opposite point of view (of adding rather than removing axioms), a semigroup is an associative magma. As in the case of groups or magmas, the semigroup operation need not be commutative, so x·y is not necessarily equal to y·x; a typical example of associative but non-commutative operation is matrix multiplication. If the semigroup operation is commutative, then the semigroup is called a commutative semigroup or (less often than in the analogous case of groups) it may be called an abelian semigroup.

A monoid is an algebraic structure intermediate between groups and semigroups, and is a semigroup having an identity element, thus obeying all but one of the axioms of a group; existence of inverses is not required of a monoid. A natural example is strings with concatenation as the binary operation, and the empty string as the identity element. Restricting to non-empty strings gives an example of a semigroup that is not a monoid. Positive integers with addition form a commutative semigroup that is not a monoid, whereas the non-negative integers do form a monoid. A semigroup without an identity element can be easily turned into a monoid by just adding an identity element. Consequently, monoids are studied in the theory of semigroups rather than in group theory. Semigroups should not be confused with quasigroups, which are a generalization of groups in a different direction; the operation in a quasigroup need not be associative but quasigroups preserve from groups a notion of division. Division in semigroups (or in monoids) is not possible in general.

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Wikipedia