Monoid

🅟 Mar 14, 2026

  🅤 Apr 21, 2026

MO#DEF. Monoid.

A monoid is a unital semigroup, i.e. a magma $M$ such that:

  1. Associativity. For all $a$, $b$, $c\in M$,

    \[(ab)c = a(bc).\]
  2. Neutral element. There is (exactly) one $e\in M$ such that for all $a\in M$,

    \[ae = ea = a.\]

MO#PROP-LR.

Let $M$ be a monoid and $a\in M$. $a$ is left-invertible if and only if $a$ is right-invertible.

Proof.Let $e$ be the neutral element.

  • If $a$ is left-invertible, then there is $x\in M$ such that $xa=e$. We have

    \[x(ax) = (xa)x = ex = x,\]

    which follows that $ax=e$.

  • If $a$ is right-invertible, then there is $x\in M$ such that $ax=e$. We have

    \[(xa)x = x(ax) = xe = x,\]

    which follows that $xa=e$.