ABSTRACT
An integral domain is said to have the IDF property when every non-zero element of it has only a finite number of non-associate irreducible divisors. A counterexample has already been found showing that the IDF property does not necessarily ascend in polynomial extensions. In this paper, we introduce a new class of integral domains, called MCD-finite domains, and show that for any domain D, D[X] is an IDF domain if and only if D is both IDF and MCD-finite. This result entails all the previously known sufficient conditions for the ascent of the IDF property. Our new characterization of polynomial domains with the IDF property enables us to use a different construction and build another counterexample which strengthen the previously known result on this matter.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the referee whose careful reading and valuable comments improved the paper.