In mathematics, Brandt semigroups are completely 0-simple inverse semigroups. In other words, they are semigroups without proper ideals and which are also inverse semigroups. They are built in the same way as completely 0-simple semigroups:
Let G be a group and be non-empty sets. Define a matrix of dimension with entries in
Then, it can be shown that every 0-simple semigroup is of the form with the operation .
As Brandt semigroups are also inverse semigroups, the construction is more specialized and in fact, I = J (Howie 1995). Thus, a Brandt semigroup has the form with the operation , where the matrix is diagonal with only the identity element e of the group G in its diagonal.