CZECHOSLOVAK MATHEMATICAL JOURNAL, vol.55, no.2, pp.455-463, 2005 (SCI-Expanded)
Let T = M[S; I, J; P] be a Rees matrix semigroup where S is a semigroup, I and J are index sets, and P is a J x I matrix with entries from S, and let U be the ideal generated by all the entries of P. If U has finite index in S, then we prove that T is periodic (locally finite) if and only if S is periodic (locally finite). Moreover, residual finiteness and having solvable word problem are investigated.