Decompositions of the positive real numbers into disjoint sets closed under addition and multiplication

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to prove that the positive real numbers can be decomposed into finitely many disjoint pieces which are also closed under addition and multiplication. As a byproduct of the argument we determine all the possible decompositions of the transcendental extension of the rational field of rank one into two pieces. Further, we prove that the positive elements of a real algebraic extensions of the rational numbers are indecomposable into two pieces.