Families of numerical semigroups and a special case of the Huneke-Wiegand conjecture (Q6636324)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a numerical semigroup, that is, a cofinite submonoid of the set of non-negative integers under addition. Every numerical semigroup admits a unique minimal set of generators (every element in the semigroup can be expressed as a sum of element in this set), which is \(\Gamma^*\setminus (\Gamma^*+\Gamma^*)\), where \(\Gamma^*=\Gamma\setminus\{0\}\). This minimal set of generators is always finite.\N\NIf \(K\) is a field and \(t\) is an unknown, the ring \(K[S]=K[t^s : s\in \Gamma]\subseteq K[t]\) is known as the semigroup ring of \(\Gamma\).\N\NAssociated to \(\Gamma\) and to every positive \(s\) not in \(\Gamma\), one can define the set\N\N\[ S_\Gamma^s=\{(n,l) : n,l\in \mathbb{N}\setminus\{0\} \text{ and } n,n+s,\dots, n+ls\in \Gamma \}. \]\N\NThis set is closed under component-wise addition. An element \((n,l)\in S_\Gamma^s\) is irreducible if it can not be expressed as the sum of two elements in \(S_\Gamma^s\setminus\{(n,l)\}\).\N\NA numerical semigroup \(\Gamma\) is symmetric if for every \(x\in\mathbb{Z}\setminus \Gamma\), we have \(\operatorname{F}(\Gamma)-x\in \Gamma\), where \(\operatorname{F}(S)=\max(\mathbb{Z}\setminus \Gamma)\), known as the Frobenius number of \(\Gamma\).\N\NThe Huneke-Wiegeand conjecture [\textit{C. Huneke} and \textit{R. Wiegand}, Math. Ann. 299, No. 3, 449--476 (1994; Zbl 0803.13008)] can be particularized to numerical semigroup rings as follows: if \(\Gamma\) is symmetric and \(M\) is a \(2\)-generated ideal of \(K[\Gamma]\), then the torsion submodule of \(M\otimes_{K[\Gamma]} \operatorname{Hom}_{K[\Gamma]} (M,K[\Gamma])\) is non-trivial.\N\NIt was shown by [\textit{P. A. García-Sánchez} and \textit{M. J. Leamer}, J. Algebra 391, 114--124 (2013; Zbl 1301.20065)] that this conjecture holds for \(\Gamma\) if there is an irreducible element in \(S_\Gamma^s\) of the form \((n,2)\) for any positive integer \(s\not\in \Gamma\).\N\NThe authors use graphic representations to induce alternative proofs for the case \(\Gamma\) is symmetric numerical semigroup generated by two or three elements (and thus \(\Gamma\) is a complete intersection; as noted by the authors these cases are covered by \textit{P. A. García-Sánchez} and \textit{M. J. Leamer}, J. Algebra 391, 114--124 (2013; Zbl 1301.20065)). Then, they extend the idea to symmetric numerical semigroups generated by a generalized arithmetic sequence.\N\NA generalized arithmetic sequence is a sequence of the form \(a,ah+d,ah+2d,\dots,ah+kd\), where \(a,h,d,k\) are positive integers. The condition \(\gcd(a,d)=1\) is needed to guarantee that the semigroup generated by this sequence is a numerical semigroup (has finite complement in \(\mathbb{N}\)). The authors prove that if the semigroup \(\Gamma\) generated by \(a,ah+d,ah+2d,\dots,ah+kd\) is symmetric, then for any \(s\) is a positive integer not in \(\Gamma\), (a) if \(\operatorname{F}-s+d\in \Gamma\), then \((\operatorname{F}(\Gamma)-s+d,2)\) is irreducible in \(S_\Gamma^s\), while (b) if \(\operatorname{F}-s+d\not\in \Gamma\), then \((ah+d,2)\) is irreducible in \(S_\Gamma^s\). In this way, the Huneke-Wiegand conjecture holds for \(\Gamma\).