Hereditary atomicity in integral domains (Q2104879)

Let \(R\) be a commutative integral domain. The domain \(R\) is \textit{atomic} if every nonzero nonunit of \(R\) is a finite product of atoms (irreducible elements), and \(R\) is \textit{hereditarily atomic} if every subring of \(R\) is atomic. The authors characterize the hereditarily atomic property for fields, polynomial extensions of fields and Laurent polynomial extensions of domains. It follows immediately from Proposition 5.3 in the paper that if some polynomial extension of a field \(F\) (possibly in infinitely many indeterminates) is hereditarily atomic, then all polynomial extensions of \(F\) are hereditarily atomic. If the field \(F\) is algebraic over some field \(\mathbb F_{p}\), then each polynomial extension of \(F\) in at least two indeterminates is hereditarily atomic, while the quotient field of such a polynomial extension is not hereditarily atomic. Power series extensions of any domain are never hereditarily atomic. The authors present many cases in which a hereditarily atomic domain is hereditarily ACCP, and conjecture that this is always the case, equivalently, that every hereditarily atomic domain satisfies ACCP.