Abstract

The fields K) of generalized power series with coefficients in a field K and exponents in an additive abelian ordered group G play an important role in the study of real closed fields. The subrings K) consisting of series with non-positive exponents find applications in the study of models of weak axioms for arithmetic. Berarducci showed that the ideal JK) generated by the monomials with negative exponents is prime when is the additive group of the reals, and asked whether the same holds for any G. We prove that this is the case and that in the quotient ring K)/J, each element admits at least one factorization into irreducibles