On the primality and elasticity of algebraic valuations of cyclic free semirings

Abstract

A cancellative commutative monoid is atomic if every non-invertible element factors into irreducibles. Under certain mild conditions on a positive algebraic number $\alpha$, the additive monoid $M_\alpha$ of the evaluation semiring $\mathbb{N}_0[\alpha]$ is atomic. The atomic structure of both the additive and the multiplicative monoids of $\mathbb{N}_0[\alpha]$ has been the subject of several recent papers. Here we focus on the monoids $M_\alpha$, and we study its omega-primality and elasticity, aiming to better understand some fundamental questions about their atomic decompositions. We prove that when $\alpha$ is less than 1, the atoms of $M_\alpha$ are as far from being prime as they can possibly be. Then we establish some results about the elasticity of $M_\alpha$, including that when $\alpha$ is rational, the elasticity of $M_\alpha$ is full (this was previously conjectured by S. T. Chapman, F. Gotti, and M. Gotti).