Semigroups and Automata. Selecta Uno Kaljulaid (1941-1999)

This volume provides a selection of previously published papers and manuscripts of Uno Kaljulaid, an eminent Estonian algebraist of the last century. The central part of the book is the English translation of Kaljulaid's 1979 Candidate thesis, which originally was typewritten in Russian and manufactured in not so many copies. The thesis is devoted to representation theory in the spirit of his thesis advisor B.I. Plotkin: representations of semigroups and algebras, especially extension to this situation, and application of the notion of triangular product of representations for groups introduced by Plotkin. Through representation theory, Kaljulaid became also interested in automata theory, which at a later phase became his main area of interest. Another field of research concerns combinatorics. Besides being an outstanding and most dedicated mathematician, Uno Kaljulaid was also very much interested in the history of mathematics. In particular, he took a vivid interest in the life and work of the great 19th century Dorpat-Tartu algebraist Th. Molien. Kaljulaid was also very interested in teaching and exposition, or popularization of mathematics. Some of his more popular-scientific papers were published in an Estonian language journal Matemaatika ja Kaasaeg (Mathematics and Our Age). Among them, there is a whole series of papers about algebraic matters, culminating in a brilliant, elementary - although partly rather philosophical - essay devoted to Galois theory. Another such series is his excellent essay of Diophantine Geometry in various installments, followed by his éloge to another of his teachers Yu. I. Manin. It is believed that the inclusion of these papers here will make it more interesting for beginners, and perhaps even contribute to attracting young people to mathematics.