Periodic subsemigroups of endomorphism monoids

If S is a periodic subsemigroup of the endomorphism monoid of a polycyclic group, then Endimioni (Mediterr J Math 8:307–313, 2011) proved that S is locally finite. Here we present an alternative proof that also extends the result to groups with suitable rank restrictions. Further we give an alternative proof of McNaughton and Zalcstein’s (J Algebra 34:292–299, 1975) theorem that periodic multiplicative subsemigroups of a matrix ring over a field are also locally finite. Finally we extend the latter to periodic subsemigroups of the endomorphism ring of a finitely generated module over a commutative ring.