Partition regularity of infinite parallelepiped sets

Abstract

A proper infinite parallelepiped (IP) set in a semigroup is an infinite set consisting of a sequence $\myseq{a}$ and its finite sums, or a superset of such a set. Hindman's theorem asserts that the proper IP sets of natural numbers are partition regular: for each finite coloring of a proper IP set of natural numbers there is a monochromatic proper IP subset. Furstenberg generalized this question to arbitrary semigroups, in which the analogous result does not hold in general. We provide a complete classification of the semigroups for which the proper IP sets are partition regular, and show that this property is equivalent to other fundamental notions of additive Ramsey theory.