Recently, Hoit introduced arithmetic on blocks, which extends the binary string operation by Jacobs and Keane. A string of elements from the Abelian additive group of residues modulo m, (Zm, ⊕), is called an m-block. The set of m-blocks together with Hoit's new product operation form an interesting algebraic structure where associative law and cancellation law hold. A weaker form of unique factorization and criteria for two indecomposable blocks to commute are also proved. In this paper, we extend Hoit's results by replacing the Abelian group (Zm, ⊕) by an arbitrary monoid (A, ◦). The set of strings built up from the alphabet A is denoted by String(A). We extend the operation ◦ on the alphabet set A to the string set String(A). We show that (String(A), ◦) is a monoid if and only if (A, ◦) is a monoid. When (A, ◦) is a group, we prove that stronger versions of a cancellation law and unique factorization hold for (String(A), ◦). A general criterion for two irreducible strings to commute is also presented.
Cancellation for two-dimensional unique factorization domains
