Geometric notes on monoids (Q1583912)

Two facts satisfied by (commutative cancellative) monoids are proved in this paper. First, the authors show that an atomic monoid \(H\) is half-factorial (i.e., all factorizations of any element in \(H\) have the same length) if, and only if, all irreducible elements lie on an affine hyperplane. Furthermore, if we assume that \(H\) is half-factorial, then \(H\) is factorial if, and only if, all irreducible elements are affinely independent. Finally, it is proved a property of geometrical interest which is that the monoid of nonnegative solutions of a linear system of Diophantine equations is a Krull monoid and conversely.