Paper 3, Section II, H

Groups, Rings and Modules
Part IB, 2010

Let RR be an integral domain and R×R^{\times}its group of units. An element of S=R\(R×{0})S=R \backslash\left(R^{\times} \cup\{0\}\right) is irreducible if it is not a product of two elements in SS. When RR is Noetherian, show that every element of SS is a product of finitely many irreducible elements of SS.