• Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.869-915
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• 2019

Let H be a Krull monoid with class group G such that every class contains a prime divisor. Then every nonunit $a{\in}H$ can be written as a finite product of irreducible elements. If $a=u_1{\cdot}\;{\ldots}\;{\cdot}u_k$ with irreducibles $u_1,{\ldots},u_k{\in}H$, then k is called the length of the factorization and the set L(a) of all possible k is the set of lengths of a. It is well-known that the system ${\mathcal{L}}(H)=\{{\mathcal{L}}(a){\mid}a{\in}H\}$ depends only on the class group G. We study the inverse question asking whether the system ${\mathcal{L}}(H)$ is characteristic for the class group. Let H' be a further Krull monoid with class group G' such that every class contains a prime divisor and suppose that ${\mathcal{L}}(H)={\mathcal{L}}(H^{\prime})$. We show that, if one of the groups G and G' is finite and has rank at most two, then G and G' are isomorphic (apart from two well-known exceptions).