Properties of Integers and Finiteness Conditions for Semigroups

Let h and k be integers greater than 1; we prove that the following statements are equivalent: 1) the direct product of h copies of the additive semigroup of non-negative integers is not k-repetitive; 2) if the direct product of h finitely generated semigroups is k-repetitive, then one of them is finite. Using this and some results of Dekking and Pleasants on infinite words, we prove that certain repetitivity properties are finiteness conditions for finitely generated semigroups.