On the divisor-class group of monadic submonoids of rings of integer-valued polynomials

Abstract: Let $R$ be a factorial domain. In this work we investigate the connections between the arithmetic of ${\rm Int}(R)$ (i.e., the ring of integer-valued polynomials over $R$) and its monadic submonoids (i.e., monoids of the form ${g\in {\rm Int}(R)\mid g\mid_{{\rm Int}(R)} f^k$ for some $k\in\mathbb{N}_0}$ for some nonzero $f\in {\rm Int}(R)$). Since every monadic submonoid of ${\rm Int}(R)$ is a Krull monoid it is possible to describe the arithmetic of these monoids in terms of their divisor-class group. We give an explicit description of these divisor-class groups in several situations and provide a few techniques that can be used to determine them. As an application we show that there are strong connections between ${\rm Int}(R)$ and its monadic submonoids. If $R=\mathbb{Z}$ or more generally if $R$ has sufficiently many "nice" atoms, then we prove that the infinitude of the elasticity and the tame degree of ${\rm Int}(R)$ can be explained by using the structure of monadic submonoids of ${\rm Int}(R)$.