Commutative Monoid
A monoid that is commutative i.e., a monoid
such that for every two elements
and
in
,
. This means
that commutative monoids are commutative, associative, and have an identity
element.
For example, the nonnegative integers under addition form a commutative monoid. The integers under the operation
with
all form a commutative monoid.
This monoid collapses to a group only if
and
are restricted
to the integers 0, 1, ...,
, since only
then do the elements have unique additive inverses. Similarly, the integers under
the operation
also forms a commutative monoid.
The numbers of commutative monoids of orders
, 2, ... are
1, 2, 5, 19, 78, 421, 2637, ... (OEIS A058131).
30 choose 18