arXiv2026
A nonzero element of an integral domain (or an element of a commutative cancellative monoid) is called atomic if it is a unit or can be written as a finite product of irreducible elements (also called atoms). In this paper, we introduce and investigate an unrestricted version of the finite factorization property, extending the work on unrestricted UFDs carried out by Coykendall and Zafrullah in 2004. An integral domain is said to have the unrestricted finite factorization (U-FF) property if every atomic element has only finitely many factorizations, or equivalently, if its atomic submonoid has the finite factorization (FF) property. We position the U-FF property within the hierarchy of classical finiteness conditions, showing that every IDF domain is a U-FFD but not conversely. Then we analyze the behavior of the U-FF property under standard constructions, including localization, polynomial extensions, and the $D+M$ construction: in each case, we find sufficient conditions under which the U-FF property is inherited by the construction. We also prove that, as it is the case with the IDF property, the U-FF property does not ascend to polynomial extensions. Then we extend the known characterization of FFDs as atomic IDF domains by arguing that the FF property and the U-FF property are equivalent over the class of nearly atomic domains (i.e., integral domains having a nonzero principal ideal whose nonzero elements are atomic). These results demonstrate that the U-FF property behaves in many ways analogously to the IDF property. We conclude taking a look at the class of all unrestricted UFDs.