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For a finite abelian group G and a splitting field K of G, let (G,K) denote the largest integer l ∈ ℕ for which there is a sequence $S=g₁·...·g_l$ over G such that $(X^{g₁}-a₁)·...·(X^{g_l}-a_l)\ne 0\in K\left[G\right]$ for all $a₁,...,a_l\in K^{\times }$. If (G) denotes the Davenport constant of G, then there is the straightforward inequality (G) - 1 ≤ (G,K). Equality holds for a variety of groups, and a conjecture of W. Gao et al. states that equality holds for all groups. We offer further groups for which equality holds, but we also give the first examples of groups G for which (G) -...

Let $D$ be a principal ideal domain and be its self-idealization. It is known that $R(D)$ is a commutative noetherian ring with identity, and hence $R(D)$ is atomic (i.e., every nonzero nonunit can be written as a finite product of irreducible elements). In this paper, we completely characterize the irreducible elements of $R(D)$. We then use this result to show how to factorize each nonzero nonunit of $R(D)$ into irreducible elements. We show that every irreducible element of $R(D)$ is a primary element, and we determine...