Half factorial Witt rings (Q1209592)

Let \(R\) be the Witt ring of a formally real field \(F\), \((R_{\text{red}},G_{\text{red}})\) its reduced Witt ring and \(C(R)\) the ideal class group of \(R\) [defined in the author's paper, J. Algebra 124, 506-520 (1989; Zbl 0682.10016)]. \(R\) is called a half factorial ring if for every odd dimensional non-unit in \(R\) any two factorizations into irreducibles have the same number of factors. The author defines a new invariant \(I(R)=g(R)+ cl(R)+3c(R)-r(R)-M(R)\), where \(g(R)=\log_ 2 | G_{\text{red}}|\), \(c(R)=\log_ 2| C(R)|\), \(cl(R)\) and \(r(R)\) are the chain length and the number of orderings of \(F\) respectively, and \(M(R)\) denotes the number of indecomposable factors in the Marshall decomposition of \(R_{\text{red}}\). The main result of the paper states: \(R\) is a half factorial ring iff \(\exp C(R)\leq 2\) and \(I(R)=0\). Studying the half factorial properties of rings originated in \textit{L. Carlitz'} paper [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 11, 391-392 (1960; Zbl 0202.33101)] and has been continued by A. Zaks, W. Narkiewicz, D. Michel and J. L. Steffan and others.