A realization theorem for sets of distances (Q527778): Difference between revisions

Let \(H\) be an atomic monoid. The set of distances \(\Delta(H)\) is the set of all positive integer \(d\) with the following property: there are atoms (irreducible elements) \(u_1,\ldots, u_k, v_1,\ldots, v_{k+d}\) such that \(u_1\cdot\ldots\cdot u_k=v_1\cdot\ldots\cdot v_{k+d}\) but \(u_1\cdot\ldots\cdot u_k\) can not be written into a product of \(\ell\) atoms with \(k<\ell<k+d\). If \(\Delta(H)=\empty\), then \(H\) is called half-factorial. Otherwise we have \(\min \Delta(H)=\gcd \Delta(H)\). The question which finite sets can actually occur as a set of distances (of any monoid or domain) was open. One of the very few results is that every finite nonempty set \(\Delta\) with \(|\Delta|=2\) and \(\min \Delta=\gcd \Delta\) can be realized as the set of distances of a numerical monoid [\textit{S. Colton} and \textit{N. Kaplan}, ``The realization problem for Delta sets of numerical semigroups'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1503.08496}]. The authors proved that if \(\Delta\) is a finite nonempty set of positive integers with \(\min \Delta=\gcd \Delta\), then there exists a finitely generated Krull monoid \(H\) such that \(\Delta(H)=\Delta\). A detailed presentation of the theory of Krull monoids can be found in [\textit{A. Geroldinger} and \textit{F. Halter-Koch}, Non-unique factorizations. Algebraic, combinatorial and analytic theory. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman \& Hall/CRC (2006; Zbl 1113.11002)].