Monoids of modules and arithmetic of direct-sum decompositions

Let $R$ be a (possibly noncommutative) ring and let $\mathcal C$ be a class of finitely generated (right) $R$-modules which is closed under finite direct sums, direct summands, and isomorphisms. Then the set $\mathcal V (\mathcal C)$ of isomorphism classes of modules is a commutative semigroup with operation induced by the direct sum. This semigroup encodes all possible information about direct sum decompositions of modules in $\mathcal C$. If the endomorphism ring of each module in $\mathcal C$ is semilocal, then $\mathcal V (\mathcal C)$ is a Krull monoid. Although this fact was observed nearly a decade ago, the focus of study thus far has been on ring- and module-theoretic conditions enforcing that $\mathcal V(\mathcal C)$ is Krull. If $\mathcal V(\mathcal C)$ is Krull, its arithmetic depends only on the class group of $\mathcal V(\mathcal C)$ and the set of classes containing prime divisors. In this paper we provide the first systematic treatment to study the direct-sum decompositions of modules using methods from Factorization Theory of Krull monoids. We do this when $\mathcal C$ is the class of finitely generated torsion-free modules over certain one- and two-dimensional commutative Noetherian local rings.Comment: Pacific Journal of Mathematics, to appea

A Geometric Approach to the Problem of Unique Decomposition of Processes

This paper proposes a geometric solution to the problem of prime decomposability of concurrent processes first explored by R. Milner and F. Moller in [MM93]. Concurrent programs are given a geometric semantics using cubical areas, for which a unique factorization theorem is proved. An effective factorization method which is correct and complete with respect to the geometric semantics is derived from the factorization theorem. This algorithm is implemented in the static analyzer ALCOOL.Comment: 15 page

Toric varieties, monoid schemes and cdhcdh descent

We give conditions for the Mayer-Vietoris property to hold for the algebraic K-theory of blow-up squares of toric varieties in any characteristic, using the theory of monoid schemes. These conditions are used to relate algebraic K-theory to topological cyclic homology in characteristic p. To achieve our goals, we develop for monoid schemes many notions from classical algebraic geometry, such as separated and proper maps.Comment: v2 changes: field of positive characteristic replaced by regular ring containing such a field at appropriate places. Minor changes in expositio

Non-normal affine monoids

We give a geometric description of the set of holes in a non-normal affine monoid $Q$. The set of holes turns out to be related to the non-trivial graded components of the local cohomology of $k[Q]$. From this, we see how various properties of $k[Q]$ like local normality and Serre's conditions $(R_1)$ and $(S_2)$ are encoded in the geometry of the holes. A combinatorial upper bound for the depth the monoid algebra $k[Q]$ is obtained and some cases where equality holds are identified. We apply this results to seminormal affine monoids.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures. Simplified proof of the main result, shortened. An even shorter version appeared with the title "Non-normal affine monoid algebra" in manuscripta mathematic

Representation Theory of Finite Semigroups, Semigroup Radicals and Formal Language Theory

In this paper we characterize the congruence associated to the direct sum of all irreducible representations of a finite semigroup over an arbitrary field, generalizing results of Rhodes for the field of complex numbers. Applications are given to obtain many new results, as well as easier proofs of several results in the literature, involving: triangularizability of finite semigroups; which semigroups have (split) basic semigroup algebras, two-sided semidirect product decompositions of finite monoids; unambiguous products of rational languages; products of rational languages with counter; and \v{C}ern\'y's conjecture for an important class of automata