The catenary degree of Krull monoids. I (Q449695)

Let \(H\) be a Krull monoid with finite class group \(G\), and let \(G_P\) be set of classes containing prime divisors. Let \(D\) be the Davenport constant of \(G_P\), that is, the maximum length of a minimal zero-sequence of elements in \(G_P\). The set \(\mathcal A(H)\) refers to the set of atoms (or irreducible elements) of \(H\). For \(a\in H\), \(\mathsf L(a)\) denotes the set of lengths of the factorizations of \(a\), and \(\Delta(\mathsf L(a))\) the set of distances of \(a\) (differences between consecutive lengths). The set of distances of \(H\) is \(\Delta(H)=\bigcup_{a\in H} \Delta(\mathsf L(a))\), and \(\mathsf c(H)\) denotes the catenary degree of \(H\), that is, the minimum \(N\in \mathbb N\cup\{\infty\}\) such that for every \(a\in H\) and any two factorizations \(z,z'\) of \(a\), there exists a chain of factorizations of \(a\) joining \(z\) with \(z'\) such that two consecutive links are at distance at most \(N\) (see [\textit{A. Geroldinger} and \textit{F. Halter-Koch}, Non-unique factorizations. Algebraic, combinatorial and analytic theory. Pure and Applied Mathematics 278. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman \& Hall/CRC (2006; Zbl 1113.11002)] for the details of the definitions). The authors introduce a new nonunique factorization invariant, denoted \(\daleth(H)\) as \[ \daleth(H) = \sup\{ \min( \mathsf L( uv)\setminus \{2\}) \mid u,v\in \mathcal A(H)\}, \] where by convention the minimum of the empty set is taken to be zero. It is show that \[ \daleth(H)\leq 2+ \sup \Delta(H)\leq \mathsf c(H)\leq \max\left\{ \left\lfloor \frac{1}2 D+1\right\rfloor , \daleth (H)\right\}. \] Under certain conditions on \(G\), it holds that \( \left\lfloor \frac{1}2 D+1\right\rfloor\leq \daleth(H)\), and consequently we get \[ \daleth(H)= 2+ \sup \Delta(H)= \mathsf c(H) . \] The invariant \(\daleth(H)\) is much easier to calculate than \(\mathsf c(H)\) and \(\sup \Delta(H)\). This is why this family of Krull monoids gains computational interest. Moreover, in these monoids, the catenary degree is reached as the distance between two factorizations of a given element, one of them being the product of two atoms. For \(3\leq D<\infty\), it is shown that \(\mathsf c(H)\) reaches \(D\) if and only if \(\daleth(H)\) reaches \(D\). The authors also obtain upper bounds of \(\daleth(H)\) depending on \(|G|\), \(\exp(G)\), \(\mathrm{rank}(G)\) and \(D\). As a consequence, these yield upper bounds for \(\mathsf c(H)\) depending on the mentioned invariants of \(G\), the class group of \(H\). As an application, a classification of all Krull monoids \(H\) with class group \(G\) having a prime divisor in each class and \(\mathsf c(H)\leq 4\) is given, showing for each possible value of \(\mathsf c(H)\) what \(G\) can be (up to isomorphism). The paper contains plenty of motivating examples, making the reading more appealing.