In this paper we present and study the numerical duplication of a numerical
semigroup, a construction that, starting with a numerical semigroup S and a
semigroup ideal E⊆S, produces a new numerical semigroup, denoted by
S\Join^b\E (where b is any odd integer belonging to S), such that
S=(S\Join^b\E)/2. In particular, we characterize the ideals E such that
S⋈bE is almost symmetric and we determine its type.Comment: 17 pages. Accepted for publication on: Semigroup Foru