Nonunique factorization over quotients of PIDs (Q1746480)

A ring is \textit{half-factorial} if (i) it is \textit{atomic} (i.e. each nonzero nonunit is a product of irreducible elements) and (ii) \(x_1\cdots x_m = y_1\cdots y_n\) with each \(x_i,y_j\) irreducible implies \(m = n\). Dating back at least to Carlitz's landmark paper [\textit{L. Carlitz}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 11, 391--392 (1960; Zbl 0202.33101)], the half-factorial property has been recognized as one of the richest and most intricate in the theory of factorization. One way to measure how far an atomic ring is from being half-factorial is to examine the length sets of its elements, where the \textit{length set} of a nonunit \(x\) is \(\{n \in \mathbb{Z}^+ \mid x = x_1\cdots x_n, \text{ each } x_i \text{ irreducible}\}\). The paper under review studies length sets in a class of commutative rings without identity. (Here an element of a ring without identity is \textit{irreducible} if it is not a product of two elements.) Let \(R\) be a commutative ring (with or without identity) and \(k\) be a positive integer. For \(x \in R\), let \([x]\) denote the \(k \times k\) matrix with every entry \(x\). Then \(S_k(R) = \{[x] \mid x \in R\}\) is a ring under the usual matrix operations, i.e., \([x]+[y] = [x+y]\) and \([x][y] = [kxy]\). The authors focus primarily on factorization in rings of the form \(S_k(D/(y))\), where \(D\) is a principal ideal domain (with identity) and \(y\) is a nonzero nonunit of \(D\) that is not relatively prime to \(k\). (This last condition ensures that \(S_k(D/(y))\) has no identity.) The authors determine the length sets of the elements of such rings. In the case where \((k,y)\) is not primary, the authors show that \(S_k(D/(y))\) is a \textit{bifurcus ring}, meaning that every nonzero nonunit is a product of one or two irreducible elements. This answers a question raised by \textit{D. Adams} et al. [Involve 2, No. 3, 351--356 (2009; Zbl 1190.20046)].