Factorization invariants in numerical monoids

Nonunique factorization in commutative monoids is often studied using factorization invariants, which assign to each monoid element a quantity determined by the factorization structure. For numerical monoids (co-finite, additive submonoids of the natural numbers), several factorization invariants have received much attention in the recent literature. In this survey article, we give an overview of the length set, elasticity, delta set, $\omega$-primality, and catenary degree invariants in the setting of numerical monoids. For each invariant, we present current major results in the literature and identify the primary open questions that remain

Realizable sets of catenary degrees of numerical monoids

The catenary degree is an invariant that measures the distance between factorizations of elements within an atomic monoid. In this paper, we classify which finite subsets of $\mathbb Z_{\ge 0}$ occur as the set of catenary degrees of a numerical monoid (i.e., a co-finite, additive submonoid of $\mathbb Z_{\ge 0}$). In particular, we show that, with one exception, every finite subset of $\mathbb Z_{\ge 0}$ that can possibly occur as the set of catenary degrees of some atomic monoid is actually achieved by a numerical monoid

Ap\'ery sets of shifted numerical monoids

A numerical monoid is an additive submonoid of the non-negative integers. Given a numerical monoid $S$, consider the family of "shifted" monoids $M_n$ obtained by adding $n$ to each generator of $S$. In this paper, we characterize the Ap\'ery set of $M_n$ in terms of the Ap\'ery set of the base monoid $S$ when $n$ is sufficiently large. We give a highly efficient algorithm for computing the Ap\'ery set of $M_n$ in this case, and prove that several numerical monoid invariants, such as the genus and Frobenius number, are eventually quasipolynomial as a function of $n$