Given a finite commutative monoid M, we show that submonoids of M n - where n = \0, 1, , n\ is equipped with the max operation - may be enumerated via the transfer matrix method. When M is also idempotent, we show that there are finitely many integers λ and rational numbers b_λ (only depending on M) such that the number of submonoids of M n is _λb_λλⁿ. This answers a question of Knuth regarding ternary (and higher order) max-closed relations, and has applications to the enumeration of saturated transfer systems in equivariant infinite loop space theory.
Kirkpatrick et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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