Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 September 2012
For an arbitrary set $X$ (finite or infinite), denote by
$\mathcal {I}(X)$ the symmetric inverse semigroup of partial injective transformations on
$X$. For
$ \alpha \in \mathcal {I}(X)$, let
$C(\alpha )=\{ \beta \in \mathcal {I}(X): \alpha \beta = \beta \alpha \}$ be the centraliser of
$ \alpha $ in
$\mathcal {I}(X)$. For an arbitrary
$ \alpha \in \mathcal {I}(X)$, we characterise the transformations
$ \beta \in \mathcal {I}(X)$ that belong to
$C( \alpha )$, describe the regular elements of
$C(\alpha )$, and establish when
$C( \alpha )$ is an inverse semigroup and when it is a completely regular semigroup. In the case where
$\operatorname {dom}( \alpha )=X$, we determine the structure of
$C(\alpha )$in terms of Green’s relations.