Long length functions (Q2255073)

The authors define recursively the \textit{length} \(L(x)\) of a nonzero element \(x\) of a commutative integral domain \(D\) satisfying ACCP (the ascending chain condition on principal ideals), as the least ordinal strictly greater than the lengths of all its proper divisors. Thus the length of a unit is \(0\). The \textit{length} \(L(D)\) of \(D\) is defined as the least ordinal strictly greater than the lengths of all the nonzero elements of \(D\). The authors prove that an ordinal is the length of a domain satisfying ACCP if and only if it is of the form \(\omega^\beta\). Moreover, for each positive integer \(n \geq 2\) and each ordinal \(\mu \geq n\), they construct a domain \(D\) satisfying ACCP and a nonzero element \(x \in D\) with \(L(x) = \mu\), and \(l(x) = n\), where \(l(x)\) denotes the minimal number of factors in an atomic factorization of \(x\). The authors deal with several topics related to integral domains as inert extensions, domains of the form \(K+M\), splittings sets, etc, especially in connection with length functions. They extend part of their work to cancellative monoids.