Number Theory Commons^™

Factorization Lengths In Numerical Monoids, Maya Samantha Schwartz

Senior Projects Spring 2019

A numerical monoid M generated by the natural numbers n_1, ..., n_k is a subset of {0, 1, 2, ...} whose elements are non-negative linear combinations of the generators n_1, ..., n_k. The set of factorizations of an element in M is the set of all the different ways to write that element as a linear combination of the generators. The length of a factorization of an element is the sum of the coefficients of that factorization. Since an element in a monoid can be written in different ways in terms of the generators, its set of factorization lengths may …