The set of distances in seminormal weakly Krull monoids (Q290780)

For a finite non-empty set \(L = \{m_1, \ldots, m_k\}\) of positive integers with \(m_1 < \ldots < m_k\), we denote by \(\Delta (L) = \{m_i-m_{i-1} \mid i \in [2,k] \}\) the set of distances of \(L\). Let \(H\) be an atomic monoid. If a non-unit \(a \in H\) has a factorization \(a = u_1 \cdots u_k\) into atoms \(u_1, \ldots, u_k\), then \(k\) is called the length of the factorization, and the set \(\mathsf L (a)\) of all possible factorization lengths \(k\) is called the set of lengths of \(a\). Let \[ \Delta (H) = \bigcup_{a \in H } \Delta \big( \mathsf L (a) \big) \] denote the \textit{set of distances} of \(H\). Clearly, \(\Delta (H)=\emptyset\) if and only if \(|\mathsf L (a)|=1\) for each \(a \in H\), and in this case \(H\) is said to be half-factorial. The set of distances (together with associated invariants) has found wide interest in the literature in settings ranging from numerical monoids to Mori domains. If \(H\) is a Krull monoid with class group \(G\) such that \(|G|\geq 3\) and every class contains a prime divisor, then \(\Delta(H)\) is an interval with \(\min \Delta(H)=1\)(see [\textit{A. Geroldinger} and \textit{P. Yuan}, Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 44, No. 6, 1203--1208 (2012; Zbl 1255.13002)]). In the present paper, the authors focus on seminormal weakly Krull monoids under suitable finiteness assumptions (for example, seminormal orders in algebraic number fields). Using ideal-theoretic results for v-Noetherian weakly Krull monoids (recently established in [\textit{A. Geroldinger} et al., J. Algebra 444, 201--245 (2015; Zbl 1327.13006)]), the authors obtain the following result. Theorem. Let \(H\) be a seminormal \(v\)-noetherian weakly Krull monoid, \(\widehat H\) its complete integral closure, and \(\emptyset \neq \mathfrak f = (H \negthinspace : \negthinspace \widehat H)\) its conductor. Suppose that the localization \(H_{\mathfrak p}\) is finitely primary for each minimal prime ideal \(\mathfrak{p}\in\mathfrak{X}(H)\), and that every class of the \(v\)-class group \(G=\mathcal C_v (H)\) contains a minimal prime ideal \(\mathfrak p \in \mathfrak X (H)\) with \(\mathfrak p \not\supset \mathfrak f\). Then \(\Delta (H)=\emptyset\) or \(\min \Delta (H)=1\). Moreover, we have {\parindent=0.7cm\begin{itemize}\item[1.] If \(|G|=1\), then \(\Delta (H) \subset \{1\}\) and if \(G\) is infinite, then \(\Delta (H) = \mathcal N \). \item[2.] Suppose that \(G\) is finite. If there is at most one \(\mathfrak p \in \mathfrak X (H)\) such that \(|\{ \mathfrak P \in \mathfrak X (\widehat H) \mid \mathfrak P \cap H = \mathfrak p\}|>1\) or if \(G\) is an elementary \(2\)-group, then \(\Delta (H)\) is a finite interval. \end{itemize}} In case of Krull monoids it is straightforward that the set of distances is empty if and only if \(|G| \leq 2\). The authors provide a detailed analysis of the case \(|G| = 2\) and determine the maximum of the set of distances, which reveals the complexity of the situation in the weakly Krull case. Theorem. Let \(H\) be a seminormal \(v\)-noetherian weakly Krull monoid, \(\widehat H\) its complete integral closure, \(\emptyset \neq \mathfrak f = (H \negthinspace : \negthinspace \widehat H) \subsetneq H\) its conductor, \(\mathcal P^* = \{\mathfrak p_1, \ldots, \mathfrak p_n\} = \{\mathfrak p \in \mathfrak X (H) \mid \mathfrak p \supset \mathfrak f \}\), and \(\mathcal P = \mathfrak X (H) \setminus \mathcal P^*\). Suppose that \(H_{\mathfrak p_i}\) is finitely primary of rank \(s_i\) for all \(i \in [1,n]\), that the \(v\)-class group \(G=\mathcal C_v (H)\) has two elements, and that each class contains some \(\mathfrak p \in \mathcal P\). Then \(\Delta (H)\) is an interval with \(2+\max \Delta (H) = \mathsf c (H)\), and either \(\Delta (H)=\emptyset\) or \(\min \Delta (H)=1\). Moreover, setting \(G = \{0, e\}\), \[ D_{\nu} = (H_{\mathfrak p_{\nu}})_{\text{red}} \,, \quad \widehat{D_{\nu}} = \widehat{D_{\nu}}^{\times} \negthinspace \times \negthinspace [q_{{\nu},1}, \ldots, q_{{\nu}, s_{\nu}}] \,, \quad \text{and} \quad G_{\nu} = \{[\epsilon] \mid \epsilon \in \widehat{D_{\nu}}^{\times} \} \quad \text{for all} \quad {\nu} \in [1,n] \,, \] we have \[ \max \Delta (H) = \max \big(\{d_{\nu}+d_{\nu'} \mid \nu, \nu' \in [1,n] \text{ with } \nu \neq \nu' \}\cup\{|d_{\nu}|\mid \nu \in [1,n]\}\big) \quad \text{where} \] \[ d_{\nu}=\begin{cases} 2&\quad \text{ if }{G_{\nu}}=\{0\}\text{ and }s_{\nu}=|\{i\in [1,s_{\nu}]\mid [q_{\nu,i}]=e\}|=2,\\ 0& \text{ if }G_{\nu}=\{0\}\text{ and }s_{\nu}=1;\text{ note that }[q_{\nu,1}]=e\text{ or }|\widehat{D_{\nu}}^{\times}|>1,\text{ since }D_{\nu}\text{ is not factorial},\\ -1& \text{ if }G_{\nu}=\{0\},s_{\nu}\geq 2,\text{ and }|\{i\in [1,s_{\nu}]\mid [q_{\nu,i}]=e\}|=0,\\ 1& \text{ if }G_{\nu}\neq\{0\},\text{ or }\big(s_{\nu}\geq 2\text{ and }|\{i\in [1,s_{\nu}]\mid [q_{\nu,i}]=e\}|=1\big),\\ &\quad\text{ or }\big(s_{\nu}\geq 3\text{ and }|\{i\in [1,s_{\nu}]\mid [q_{\nu,i}]=e\}|\geq 2\big). \end{cases} \]