On the semiring of cone preserving maps

If K is a proper cone in Rⁿ, then the cone of all linear operators that preserve K, denoted by π(K), forms a semiring under usual operator addition and multiplication. Recently J.G. Horne examined the ideals of this semiring. He proved that if K₁, K₂ are polyhedral cones such that π(K₁) and π(K₂) are isomorphic as semirings, then K₁ and K₂ are linearly isomorphic. The study of this semiring is continued in this paper. In Sec. 3 ideals of π(K) which are also faces are characterized. In Sec. 4 it is shown that π(K) has a unique minimal two-sided ideal, namely, the dual cone of π(K¹), where K¹ is the dual cone of K. Extending Horne's result, it is also proved that the cone K is characterized by this unique minimal two-sided ideal of π(K). The set of all faces of π(K) inherits a quotient semiring structure from π(K). Properties of this face-semiring are given in Sec. 5. In particular, it is proved that this face-semiring admits no nontrivial congruence relation iff the duality operator of π(K) is injective. In Sec. 6 the maximal one-sided and two-sided ideals of π(K) are identified. In Sec. 8 it is shown that π(K) never satisfies the ascending-chain condition on principal one-sided ideals. Some partial results on the question of topological closedness of principal one-sided ideals of π(K) are also given.