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Let $S$ be a commutative semigroup. We say an element $x$ divides an element $y$ written $x \mid y$ if there is an element $z$ such that $xz = y$
An Archimedean semigroup $S$ is a commutative semigroup with the property that for all $x, y \in S$ there is a natural number $n$ such that $x \mid y^n$
This is related to the Archimedean property of positive real numbers $\mathbb{R}^+$ if $x, y > 0$ then there is a natural number $n$ such that $x < ny$ Except that the notation is additive rather than multiplicative, this is the same as saying that $(\mathbb{R}^+, +)$ is an Archimedean semigroup.
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