Permanent Semigroups

A permanent semigroup is a semigroup of n × n matrices on which the permanent function is multiplicative. If the underlying ring is an infinite integral domain with characteristic p > n or characteristic 0 we prove that any permanent semigroup consists of matrices with at most one nonzero diagonal. The same result holds if the ring is a finite field with characteristic p > n and at least n²+n elements. We also consider the Kronecker product of permanent semigroups and show that the Kronecker product of permanent semigroups is a permanent semigroup if and only if the pennanental analogue of the formula for the determinant of a Kronecker product of two matrices holds. This latter result holds even when the matrix entries are from a commutative ring with unity.