Asymptotic elasticity in atomic monoids. (Q2491174)

Let \(M\) be a (multiplicative) commutative cancellative monoid in which every nonzero nonunit is a product of irreducible elements, and let \(M^*\) be its subset of nonzero nonunits. For an \(x\in M^*\), its elasticity (resp., asymptotic elasticity) is \(\rho(x)=\sup\{m/n\mid x=x_1\cdots x_m=y_1\cdots y_n\) with each \(x_i,y_j\in M\) irreducible\} (resp., \(\overline\rho(x)=\lim_{n\to\infty}\rho(x^n)\)). The elasticity (resp., asymptotic elasticity) of \(M\) is \(\rho(M)=\sup\{\rho(x)\mid x\in M^*\}\), (resp., \(\overline\rho(M)=\sup\{\rho(x)\mid x\in M^*\}\)), and the set of elasticities (resp., asymptotic elasticities) of \(M\) is \({\mathcal R}(M)=\{\rho(x)\mid x\in M^*\}\) (resp., \(\overline{\mathcal R}(M)=\{\overline\rho(x)\mid x\in M^*\}\)). In this paper, the authors investigate the function \(\overline\rho\) when \(M\) is a block monoid over an Abelian group. Their main result is that \({\mathcal R}(M)= \overline{\mathcal R}(M)=[1,\rho(M)]\cap\mathbb{Q}\) for certain block monoids \(M\).