Soficity for monoids, semigroups, and general dynamical systems

Abstract

We examine several definitions of soficity for monoids obtained by generalizing various definitions of sofic groups. They are not all equivalent and include the definition recently introduced by Ceccherini-Silberstein and Coornaert. One of these definitions readily generalizes to semigroups (albeit in an arguably unsatisfying way), thus addressing a question asked by Kambites. We conclude by proposing a definition of soficity for a general dynamical system consisting of a semigroup acting by measure-preserving transformations on a probability space.