HIGHER-ORDER CLASS GROUPS AND BLOCK MONOIDS OF KRULL MONOIDS WITH TORSION CLASS GROUP

Abstract

Extensions of the notion of a class group and a block monoid associated to a Krull monoid with torsion class group are introduced and investigated. Instead of assigning to a Krull monoid only one abelian group (the class group) and one monoid of zero-sum sequences (the block monoid), we assign to it a recursively defined family of abelian groups, the first being the class group, and do alike for the block monoid. These investigations are motivated by the aim of gaining a more detailed understanding of the arithmetic of Krull monoids, including Dedekind and Krull domains, both from a technical and conceptual point of view. To illustrate our method, some first arithmetical applications are presented.