Factorization in almost Dedekind domain

TL;DR

This paper investigates the element-wise factorization properties of a specific almost Dedekind domain constructed from field extensions, revealing conditions under which elements are irreducible and describing factorization behaviors.

Contribution

It characterizes when irreducible elements in subdomains remain irreducible in the union domain and introduces the concept of infinite products in this context.

Findings

If F is algebraically closed or finite with characteristic p, D has no irreducible elements.

In finite fields of odd characteristic, irreducibility in D relates to cyclotomic polynomial factors.

For F=Q and p=2, every nonzero nonunit factors into countably many primes.

Abstract

Let $F$ be a field, $p$ a prime number, $X$ an indeterminate over $F$, $D_n =F[X^{\frac{1}{p^n}}, X^{-\frac{1}{p^n}}]$ for each integer $n \geq 0$ and $D = \bigcup\limits_{n\in\mathbb{N}_0}D_n.$ Then $D$ is a one-dimensional B{\'e}zout domain but not a Dedekind domain, and $D$ is an almost Dedekind domain if and only if char$(F) \neq p$. In this paper, we study the element-wise factorization properties of $D$. For example, we determine when an irreducible element of $D_n$ is an irreducible element of $D$, in terms of $n$ and $p$. In particular, we show that if $F$ is algebraically closed or a finite field of char$(F)=p$, then $D$ has no irreducible element. We also show that if $F$ is a finite field of odd characteristic, then an irreducible element $f(X)$ of $D_0$ is irreducible in $D$ if and only if it is a factor of a cyclotomic polynomial $\Phi_n(X)$ for some integer $n \geq 1$ which satisfies a certain equation in terms of $|F|$ and deg$(f(X))$. Finally, we introduce the notion of infinite product and we then show that if $F= \mathbb{Q}$ and $p=2$, every nonzero nonunit of $D$ can be written as a product of countably many prime elements of $D$ and every proper nonzero principal ideal of $D$ can be uniquely written as a countable intersection of principal primary ideals.