The structure of unique factorization rings

Introduction . In ( 1 ) we proved that the direct sum of a finite number of unique factorization rings is a unique factorization ring (UFR), and in particular that the direct sum of a finite number of unique factorization domains (UFD's) is a UFR. The converse, however, does not hold i.e. not every UFR can be expressed as a direct sum of UFD's. Here we investigate the structure of UFR's and show that every UFR is a finite direct sum of UFD's and of special UFR's. There is thus a relationship with the structure theorem for principal ideal rings (( 2 ), p. 245).