Coset Enumeration in a Finitely Presented Semigroup

Abstract

The enumeration method for finite groups, the so-called Todd-Coxeter process, has been described in [2], [3]. Leech [4] and Trotter [5] carried out the process of coset enumeration for groups on a computer. However Mendelsohn [1] was the first to present a formal proof of the fact that this process ends after a finite number of steps and that it actually enumerates cosets in a group. Dietze and Schaps [7] used Todd-Coxeter′s method to find all subgroups of a given finite index in a finitely presented group. B. H. Neumann [8] modified Todd-Coxeter′s method to enumerate cosets in a semigroup, giving however no proofs of the effectiveness of this method nor that it actually enumerates cosets in a semigroup.