Systems of sets of lengths of Puiseux monoids (Q1713011)

A Puiseux monoid is a submonoid of the set of nonnegative rational numbers under addition. This concept generalizes the concept of numerical semigroups, but the author has shown in several manuscripts that Puiseux monoids are much richer in the search of families and examples with specific arithmetic properties. A monoid is said to be atomic if it can be generated by its set of atoms (elements that are not sum of two non-units elements; as Puiseux monoids are reduced, these are the elements that cannot be expressed as a sum of two nonzero elements of the monoid). Not all Puiseux monoids are atomic (in contrast to numerical semigroups, that are all atomic). For an element \(x\) in an atomic Puiseux monoid, we can express this element as a sum of atoms \(x=a_1+\dots+a_n\) (repetitions are allowed). Such an expression is called a factorization, and \(n\) is the length of this factorization. The set of all possible lengths of factorizations of \(x\) is denoted by \(\mathsf{L}(x)\). If this set is finite for all \(x\) in the monoid, then the monoid is said to be a BF-monoid. The system of sets of lengths of \(M\) is defined as \(\mathcal{L}(M)=\{\mathsf{L}(x) \mid x \in M\}\). The author shows that if \(0\) is not a limit point in \(M\), then \(M\) is a BF-monoid. It is well known that for every finite set \(S\) of integers greater than one, there exists a numerical semigroup \(M\) and an element \(x\in M\) such that \(\mathsf{L}(x)=S\) [\textit{A. Geroldinger} and \textit{W. A. Schmid}, Forum Math. 30, No. 5, 1111--1118 (2018; Zbl 1396.20069)]. The author uses this fact to construct a Puisseux monoid \(M\) having a full system of sets of lengths, that is, for every \(S\) in \(\{\{0\},\{1\}\}\cup\{ S \mid S\subseteq \mathbb{Z}_{\ge 2}, |S|<\infty \}\). The author finds non-isomorphic Puiseux monoids having the same system of sets of lengths, and thus systems of sets of lengths do not fully determine Puiseux monoids up to isomorphism. The intersection of the systems of set of lengths ranging over all numerical semigroups is \(\{\{0\},\{1\},\{2\}\}\) [\textit{A. Geroldinger} and \textit{W. A. Schmid}, Forum Math. 30, No. 5, 1111--1118 (2018; Zbl 1396.20069)]. The author proves that the same holds if the intersection ranges over all Puiseux monoids not having 0 as a limit point. He also finds a Puisseux monoid \(M\) such that \(\{2\}\notin \mathcal{L}(M)\) and another Puiseux monoid whose cardinalities of sets of lenghts of factorizations are 1 and \(\infty\). It turns out that the intersection of all systems of sets of lengths ranging over all nontrivial atomic Puiseux monoids is \(\{\{0\},\{1\}\}\). A Goldbach's number is a positive integer that can be expressed as a sum of two prime integers. Let \(M\) be elementary Puiseux monoid, that is, the monoid \(\langle 1/p \mid p \text{ prime}\rangle\). The author proves that \(\mathsf{L}(n)\) is the set of sums of \(n\) primes (with repetitions allowed), for \(n\) a positive integer. In particular, \(\mathsf{L}(2)\) coincides with the set of Goldbach's numbers. Notice that \(\mathsf{L}(3)\) is the set of integers that are sums of three primes (there is a typo in the second part of the last theorem in the manuscript, and the description of \(\mathsf{L}(3)\) proposed there is not correct).