Irreducibility of Arf numerical semigroups (Q2684024)

A subset \(H\) of \(\mathbb{N}\) is a numerical semigroup if it is closed under addition, has a finite complement in \(\mathbb{N}\) and \(0\in H\). A numerical semigroup \(H\) is Arf if for all \(h_i , h_j , h_k \in H\), with \(h_i \geq h_j \geq h_k\), we have \(h_i + h_j - h_k\in H\). An element \(x\in\mathbb{N}\) is a gap of \(H\) if \(x\notin H\). A numerical semigroup is irreducible if it cannot be expressed as an intersection of two numerical semigroups containing it properly. In Section 2, the author introduces the concept of Arf special gaps of an Arf numerical semigroup, and an algorithm for computing all Arf special gaps of a given Arf numerical semigroup. In Section 3, the author introduces the concept of Arf-irreducible numerical semigroups as follows: An Arf numerical semigroup is called Arf-irreducible if it can not be expressed as the intersection of two Arf numerical semigroups containing it properly. Obviously, every irreducible Arf numerical semigroup is Arf-irreducible. However, an Arf-irreducible numerical semigroup need not be an irreducible numerical semigroup. The author draws conclusions about all these concepts. Next, the author gives a system of generators for the Frobenius variety and variety of families of Arf numerical semigroups. Finally, the author obtains the minimal Arf system of generators of a given Arf numerical semigroup.