Atomicity of positive monoids (Q6648812)

A positive monoid is a submonoid of \((\mathbb{R}_{\ge 0},+)\). Hence, every positive monoid is commutative and cancellative (\(a+b=a+c\) implies \(b=c\)). A non-zero element \(a\) in a positive monoid \(M\) is said to be an atom if it does not belong to \(M^*+M^*\), where \(M^*=M\setminus\{0\}\). The set of atoms of \(M\) is denoted by \(\mathcal{A}(M)\). The monoid \(M\) is atomic if every element \(x\in M\) can be expressed as a sum of finitely many atoms. A positive monoid with no atoms is called an antimatter.\N\NA non-empty set \(I\) of a positive monoid \(M\) is an ideal if \(I+M=I\). In particular, for every \(x\in M\), the set \(x+M\) is an ideal of \(M\), which is called principal. The monoid \(M\) satisfies the ascending chain condition on principal ideals (ACCP for short) if every ascending chain of principal ideals becomes stationary. It is well known that if \(M\) has the ACCP, then it is atomic.\N\NLet \(M\) be an atomic positive monoid and let \(x\in M\). Set \(A=\mathcal{A}(M)\). If \(x=\sum_{a\in A} \lambda_a a\) for some non-negative integers \(\lambda_a\) (only finitely many of them are non-zero), then we say that the sequence \(z=(\lambda_a)_{a\in A}\) is a factorization of \(x\); its length is \(|z|=\sum_{a\in A} \lambda_a\). The set of factorizations of \(x\) is denoted by \(\mathsf{Z}(x)\). If \(\mathsf{Z}(x)\) is a singleton for every \(x\in M\), then \(M\) is a unique factorization moniod (UFM for short), while if the cardinality of \(Z(x)\) is finite for all \(x\in M\), the monoid is said to be a finite factorization monoid (FFM). Clearly, every UFM is a FFM.\N\NThe set of lengths of \(x\in M\) is \(\mathsf{L}(x)=\{ |z| : z\in \mathsf{Z}(x)\}\). The monoid \(M\) is a half-factorial monoid (HFM) if \(\mathsf{L}(x)\) is a singleton for every \(x\in M\), and it is a bounded factorization monoid (BFM) if for every \(x\in M\), the set \(\mathsf{L}(x)\) has finite cardinality. Thus, every FFM is BFM. Also, UFM implies HFM, and HFM implies BFM. It is also know that every BFM has the ACCP.\N\NThe present manuscript is mainly a survey of the existing examples proving that the implications presented above cannot be reversed for positive monoids. Cyclic semirings, that is, monoids generated by powers of a positive real number, are central in this study.