Geometric and combinatorial aspects of submonoids of a finite-rank free commutative monoid
arXiv:1907.00744 · doi:10.1016/j.laa.2020.06.009
Abstract
If is an ordered field and is a finite-rank torsion-free monoid, then one can embed into a finite-dimensional vector space over via the inclusion , where is the Grothendieck group of . Let be the class consisting of all monoids (up to isomorphism) that can be embedded into a finite-rank free commutative monoid. Here we investigate how the atomic structure and arithmetic properties of a monoid in are connected to the combinatorics and geometry of its conic hull . First, we show that the submonoids of determined by the faces of account for all divisor-closed submonoids of . Then we appeal to the geometry of to characterize whether is a factorial, half-factorial, and other-half-factorial monoid. Finally, we investigate the cones of finitary, primary, finitely primary, and strongly primary monoids in . Along the way, we determine the cones that can be realized by monoids in and by finitary monoids in .
40 pages, 4 figures; to appear in Linear Algebra and Its Applications