Greedy Sets and Greedy Numerical Semigroups

Abstract

Motivated by the change-making problem, we extend the notion of greediness to sets of positive integers not containing the element $1$, and from there to numerical semigroups. We provide an algorithm to determine if a given set (not necessarily containing the number $1$) is greedy. We also give specific conditions for sets of cardinality three, and we prove that numerical semigroups generated by three consecutive integers are greedy.