Factorisation of germ-like series

Abstract

A classical tool in the study of real closed fields are the fields $K((G))$ of generalised power series (i.e., formal sums with well-ordered support) with coefficients in a field $K$ of characteristic 0 and exponents in an ordered abelian group $G$. A fundamental result of Berarducci ensures the existence of irreducible series in the subring $K((G^{\leq 0}))$ of $K((G))$ consisting of the generalised power series with non-positive exponents. It is an open question whether the factorisations of a series in such subring have common refinements, and whether the factorisation becomes unique after taking the quotient by the ideal generated by the non-constant monomials. In this paper, we provide a new class of irreducibles and prove some further cases of uniqueness of the factorisation.