Let $H$ be a Krull monoid with finite class group $G$ such that every class contains a prime divisor (for example, a ring of integers in an algebraic number field or a holomorphy ring in an algebraic function field). The catenary degree $\mathsf{c}\left(H\right)$ of $H$ is the smallest integer $N$ with the following property: for each $a\in H$ and each two factorizations $z,z^{\prime }$ of $a$, there exist factorizations $z=z_0,...,z_k=z^{\prime }$ of $a$ such that, for each $i\in [1,k]$, $z_i$ arises from $z_{i-1}$ by replacing at most $N$ atoms from $z_{i-1}$ by at most $N$ new atoms. Under a very...

If $a$ and $b$ are positive integers with $a\le b$ and $a^2\equiv a\mathrm{mod}b$, then the set $$M_{a,b}=\{x\in \mathbb{N}:x\equiv a\mathrm{mod}b\text{or}x=1\}$$ is a multiplicative monoid known as an arithmetical congruence monoid (or ACM). For any monoid $M$ with units $M^{\times }$ and any $x\in M\setminus M^{\times }$ we say that $t\in \mathbb{N}$ is a factorization length of $x$ if and only if there exist irreducible elements $y_1,...,y_t$ of $M$ and $x=y_1\cdots y_t$. Let $ℒ\left(x\right)=\{t_1,...,t_j\}$ be the set of all such lengths (where $t_i\<t_{i+1}$ whenever $i\<j$). The Delta-set of the element $x$ is defined as the set of gaps in $ℒ\left(x\right)$: $\Delta \left(x\right)=\{t_{i+1}-t_i:1\le i\<k\}$ and the Delta-set of...

We discuss the propagation of electromagnetic waves of a special form through an inhomogeneous isotropic medium which has a cylindrical symmetry and a nonlinear dielectric response. For the case where this response is of self-focusing type the problem is treated in [1]. Here we continue this study by dealing with a defocusing dielectric response. This tends to inhibit the guidance properties of the medium and so guidance can only be expected provided that the cylindrical stratification...

1. Introduction. Let p be a prime number and ${\mathbb{Z}}_p$ the ring of p-adic integers. Let k be a finite extension of the rational number field ℚ, $k_{\infty }$ a ${\mathbb{Z}}_p$-extension of k, $k_n$ the nth layer of $k_{\infty }/k$, and $A_n$ the p-Sylow subgroup of the ideal class group of $k_n$. Iwasawa proved the following well-known theorem about the order $A_n$ of $A_n$: Theorem A (Iwasawa). Let $k_{\infty }/k$ be a ${\mathbb{Z}}_p$-extension and $A_n$ the p-Sylow subgroup of the ideal class group of $k_n$, where $k_n$ is the $n$th layer of $k_{\infty }/k$. Then there exist integers $\lambda =\lambda (k_{\infty }/k)\ge 0$, $\mu =\mu (k_{\infty }/k)\ge 0$, $\nu =\nu (k_{\infty }/k)$, and n₀ ≥ 0...