Given a numerical semigroup S= and sβS, we
consider the factorization s=c1βa1β+c2βa2β+...+ctβatβ where
ciββ₯0. Such a factorization is {\em maximal} if c1β+c2β+...+ctβ is a
maximum over all such factorizations of s. We show that the number of maximal
factorizations, varying over the elements in S, is always bounded. Thus, we
define \dx(S) to be the maximum number of maximal factorizations of elements
in S. We study maximal factorizations in depth when S has embedding
dimension less than four, and establish formulas for \dx(S) in this case.Comment: Main results are unchanged, but proofs and exposition have been
improved. Some details have been changed considerably including the titl