Questions tagged [ac.commutative-algebra]

Commutative rings, modules, ideals, homological algebra, computational aspects, invariant theory, connections to algebraic geometry and combinatorics.

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A game on Noetherian rings

A friend suggested the following combinatorial game. At any time, the state of the game is a (commutative) Noetherian ring $\neq 0$. On a player's turn, that player chooses a nonzero non-unit element ...
Will Sawin's user avatar
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218 votes
8 answers
33k views

How to memorise (understand) Nakayama's lemma and its corollaries?

Nakayama's lemma is mentioned in the majority of books on algebraic geometry that treat varieties. So I think Ihave read the formulation of this lemma at least 20 times (and read the proof maybe ...
aglearner's user avatar
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132 votes
3 answers
20k views

When is the tensor product of two fields a field?

Consider two extension fields $K/k, L/k$ of a field $k$. A frequent question is whether the tensor product ring $K\otimes_k L$ is a field. The answer is "no" and this answer is often ...
118 votes
5 answers
13k views

What do epimorphisms of (commutative) rings look like?

(Background: In any category, an epimorphism is a morphism $f:X\to Y$ which is "surjective" in the following sense: for any two morphisms $g,h:Y\to Z$, if $g\circ f=h\circ f$, then $g=h$. Roughly, "...
Anton Geraschenko's user avatar
113 votes
2 answers
12k views

How would you solve this tantalizing Halmos problem?

$1-ab$ invertible $\implies$ $1-ba$ invertible has a slick power series "proof" as below, where Halmos asks for an explanation of why this tantalizing derivation succeeds. Do you know one? Geometric ...
Bill Dubuque's user avatar
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106 votes
0 answers
16k views

A proof of $\dim(R[T])=\dim(R)+1$ without prime ideals?

Please read this first before answering. This question is only concerned with a proof of the dimension formula using the Coquand-Lombardi characterization below. If you post something that doesn't ...
Martin Brandenburg's user avatar
101 votes
30 answers
28k views

Errata for Atiyah–Macdonald

Is there a good list of errata for Atiyah–Macdonald available? A cursory Google search reveals a laughably short list here, with just a few typos. Is there any source available online which lists ...
95 votes
11 answers
6k views

Can a non-surjective polynomial map from an infinite field to itself miss only finitely many points?

Is there an infinite field $k$ together with a polynomial $f \in k[x]$ such that the associated map $f \colon k \to k$ is not surjective but misses only finitely many elements in $k$ (i.e. only ...
Philipp Lampe's user avatar
81 votes
30 answers
68k views

Applications of the Chinese remainder theorem

As the title suggests I am interested in CRT applications. Wikipedia article on CRT lists some of the well known applications (e.g. used in the RSA algorithm, used to construct an elegant Gödel ...
77 votes
9 answers
25k views

Irreducibility of polynomials in two variables

Let $k$ be a field. I am interested in sufficient criteria for $f \in k[x,y]$ to be irreducible. An example is Theorem A of this paper (Brindza and Pintér, On the irreducibility of some polynomials in ...
Hailong Dao's user avatar
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75 votes
9 answers
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Why is an elliptic curve a group?

Consider an elliptic curve $y^2=x^3+ax+b$. It is well known that we can (in the generic case) create an addition on this curve turning it into an abelian group: The group law is characterized by the ...
Harald Hanche-Olsen's user avatar
74 votes
5 answers
13k views

Is there a "geometric" intuition underlying the notion of normal varieties?

I first got concious of the notion of normal varieties around 3 years ago and despite the fact that by now I can manipulate with it a bit, this notion still puzzles me a lot. One thing that strikes me ...
aglearner's user avatar
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74 votes
1 answer
5k views

$R$ is isomorphic to $R[X,Y]$, but not to $R[X]$

Is there a commutative ring $R$ with $R \cong R[X,Y]$ and $R \not\cong R[X]$? This is a ring-theoretic analog of my previous question about abelian groups: In fact, in any algebraic category we may ...
Martin Brandenburg's user avatar
73 votes
3 answers
6k views

Is there a "purely algebraic" proof of the finiteness of the class number?

The background is as follows: I have been whittling away at my commutative algebra notes (or, rather at commutative algebra itself, I suppose) recently for the occasion of a course I will be teaching ...
Pete L. Clark's user avatar
71 votes
11 answers
8k views

How to introduce notions of flat, projective and free modules?

In the coming spring semester I will be teaching for the first time an introductory (graduate) course in Commutative Algebra. As many people know, I have been plugging away for a while at this ...
Pete L. Clark's user avatar
70 votes
14 answers
20k views

Elementary / Interesting proofs of the Nullstellensatz

Is there an easy proof of the Nullstellensatz that avoids the standard Noether-normalization techniques? One proof I know proves first the 'weak' Nullstellensatz which ensures that maximal ideals ...
70 votes
2 answers
9k views

What is the insight of Quillen's proof that all projective modules over a polynomial ring are free?

One of the more misleadingly difficult theorems in mathematics is that all finitely generated projective modules over a polynomial ring are free. It involves some of the most basic notions in ...
Ben Webster's user avatar
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63 votes
4 answers
20k views

When is the product of two ideals equal to their intersection?

Consider a ring $A$ and an affine scheme $X=\operatorname{Spec}A$ . Given two ideals $I$ and $J$ and their associated subschemes $V(I)$ and $V(J)$, we know that the intersection $I\cap J$ corresponds ...
evgeniamerkulova's user avatar
62 votes
5 answers
9k views

Does "finitely presented" mean "always finitely presented"? (Answered: Yes!)

Precisely, if an R-module M has a finite presentation, and Rk → M is some unrelated surjection (k finite), is the kernel necessarily also finitely generated? Basically I want to believe I can ...
Andrew Critch's user avatar
56 votes
4 answers
12k views

Geometric meaning of Cohen-Macaulay schemes

What is the geometric meaning of Cohen-Macaulay schemes? Of course they are important in duality theory for coherent sheaves, behave in many ways like regular schemes, and are closed under various ...
Martin Brandenburg's user avatar
56 votes
2 answers
5k views

A condition that implies commutativity

Let $R$ be a ring. A notable theorem of N. Jacobson states that if the identity $x^{n}=x$ holds for every $x \in R$ and a fixed $n \geq 2$ then $R$ is a commutative ring. The proof of the result for ...
José Hdz. Stgo.'s user avatar
55 votes
5 answers
3k views

Bizarre operation on polynomials

There I was, innocently doing some category theory, when up popped a totally outlandish operation on polynomials. It seems outlandish to me, anyway. I'd like to know if anyone has seen this ...
Tom Leinster's user avatar
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54 votes
2 answers
7k views

Is primary decomposition still important?

On p.50 of Atiyah and Macdonald's Introduction to Commutative Algebra, in the introduction to the chapter on primary decomposition, it says In the modern treatment, with its emphasis on ...
David Corwin's user avatar
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53 votes
8 answers
56k views

Modern algebraic geometry vs. classical algebraic geometry

Can anyone offer advice on roughly how much commutative algebra, homological algebra etc. one needs to know to do research in (or to learn) modern algebraic geometry. Would you need to be familiar ...
53 votes
3 answers
6k views

Is it true that, as $\Bbb Z$-modules, the polynomial ring and the power series ring over integers are dual to each other?

Is it true that, in the category of $\mathbb{Z}$-modules, $\operatorname{Hom}_{\mathbb{Z}}(\mathbb{Z}[x],\mathbb{Z})\cong\mathbb{Z}[[x]]$ and $\operatorname{Hom}_{\mathbb{Z}}(\mathbb{Z}[[x]],\mathbb{Z}...
Maharana's user avatar
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52 votes
9 answers
12k views

Is there a preferable convention for defining the wedge product?

There are different conventions for defininig the wedge product $\wedge$. In Kobayashi-Nomizu, there is $\alpha\wedge\beta:=Alt(\alpha\otimes\beta)$, in Spivak, we find $\alpha\wedge\beta:=\frac{(k+l)...
agt's user avatar
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52 votes
3 answers
5k views

What the heck is the Continuum Hypothesis doing in Weibel's Homological Algebra?

On page 98 of Weibel's An Introduction to Homological Algebra he mentions that the ring $R = \prod_{i=1}^\infty \mathbb{C}$ has global dimension $\geq 2$ with equality iff the continuum hypothesis ...
David White's user avatar
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52 votes
7 answers
8k views

"Algebraic" topologies like the Zariski topology?

The fact that a commutative ring has a natural topological space associated with it is still a really interesting coincidence. The entire subject of Algebraic geometry is based on this simple fact. ...
52 votes
2 answers
3k views

a categorical Nakayama lemma?

There are the following Nakayama style lemmata: (the classical Nakayama lemma) Let $R$ be a commutative ring with $1$ and $M$ a finitely generated $R$-module. If $m_1, \ldots, m_n$ generate $M$ ...
user avatar
51 votes
2 answers
7k views

Ring-theoretic characterization of open affines?

Background Recall that, given two commutative rings $A$ and $B$, the set of morphisms of rings $A\to B$ is in bijection with the set of morphisms of schemes $\mathrm{Spec}(B)\to\mathrm{Spec}(A)$. ...
Manny Reyes's user avatar
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51 votes
7 answers
5k views

What does a projective resolution mean geometrically?

For R a commutative ring and M an R-module, we can always find a projective resolution of M which replaces M by a sequence of projective R-modules. But as R is commutative, we can consider the affine ...
Justin DeVries's user avatar
51 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is there a notion of polynomial ring in "one half variable"?

Let $C$ be the category of commutative rings. Is there a functor $F :C \to C$ such that $F(F(R)) \cong R[X]$ for every commutative ring $R$ ? (Here, we may assume those isomorphisms to be natural ...
Watson's user avatar
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49 votes
4 answers
4k views

Why is there a duality between spaces and commutative algebras?

1) The category of affine varieties over $\mathbb{C}$ is equivalent to the opposite category of finitely generated reduced algebras over $\mathbb{C}$. The equivalence associates to an affine variety ...
Yonatan Harpaz's user avatar
48 votes
4 answers
4k views

Are there more Nullstellensätze?

Over which fields $k$ is there a reasonable analogue of Hilbert's Nullstellensatz? Here is a more precise formulation: let $k$ be an arbitrary field, $n$ a positive integer, and $R = k[t_1,..,t_n]$. ...
Pete L. Clark's user avatar
47 votes
14 answers
21k views

Applications of the Cayley-Hamilton theorem

The Cayley-Hamilton theorem is usually presented in standard undergraduate courses in linear algebra as an important result. Recall that it says that any square matrix is a "root" of its own ...
47 votes
10 answers
15k views

Rings in which every non-unit is a zero divisor

Is there a special name for the class of (commutative) rings in which every non-unit is a zero divisor? The main example is $\mathbf{Z}/(n)$. Are there other natural or interesting examples?
lhf's user avatar
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47 votes
5 answers
4k views

Is the determinant equal to a determinant?

Let $\det_d = \det((x_{i,j})_{1 \leq i,j\leq d})$ be the determinant of a generic $d \times d$ matrix. Suppose $k \mid d$, $1 < k < d$. Can $\det_d$ be written as the determinant of a $k \times ...
Zach Teitler's user avatar
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46 votes
1 answer
1k views

Summing infinitely many infinitesimally small variables makes sense in algebra

There is an identity $e^x=\lim_{n\to \infty} (1+x/n)^n$, and I always thought it is a purely analytic statement. But then I discovered its curious interpretation in pure algebra: Consider the ring of ...
Anton Mellit's user avatar
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45 votes
5 answers
4k views

How to think about CM rings?

There are a few questions about CM rings and depth. Why would one consider the concept of depth? Is there any geometric meaning associated to that? The consideration of regular sequence is okay to me....
user avatar
45 votes
4 answers
7k views

What does "linearly disjoint" mean for abstract field extensions?

All definitions I've seen for the statement "$E,F$ are linearly disjoint extensions of $k$" are only meaningful when $E,F$ are given as subfields of a larger field, say $K$. I am happy with the ...
Andrew Critch's user avatar
45 votes
2 answers
4k views

Why do we care whether a PID admits some crazy Euclidean norm?

An integral domain $R$ is said to be Euclidean if it admits some Euclidean norm: i.e., a function $N: R \rightarrow \mathbb{N} = \mathbb{Z}^{\geq 0}$ such that: for all $x, y \in R$ with $N(y) > 0$,...
Pete L. Clark's user avatar
45 votes
0 answers
1k views

Enriched Categories: Ideals/Submodules and algebraic geometry

While working through Atiyah/MacDonald for my final exams I realized the following: The category(poset) of ideals $I(A)$ of a commutative ring A is a closed symmetric monoidal category if endowed ...
Gerrit Begher's user avatar
44 votes
8 answers
6k views

What makes a theorem *a* "nullstellensatz."

I know what the (Hilbert) Nullstellensatz says. A MathSciNet search on "nullstellensatz" turns up nearly 200 papers, with only a minority offering either new proofs or new applications of the classic ...
44 votes
7 answers
5k views

Does $SL_3(R)$ embed in $SL_2(R)$?

Is there any non-trivial ring such that $SL_{3}(R)$ is isomorphic to a subgroup of $SL_{2}(R)$? $SL_{3}(\mathbb{Z})$ is not an amalgam, and has the wrong number of order $2$ elements to be a subgroup ...
Jonathan Kiehlmann's user avatar
44 votes
2 answers
3k views

Categorical definition of the ideal product within the category of rings

This is an extension of this question. Let $I,J$ be ideals of a ring $R$; every ring is commutative and unital here. Is it possible to define $R \to R/(I*J)$ out of $R \to R/I$ and $R \to R/J$ in ...
Martin Brandenburg's user avatar
43 votes
4 answers
3k views

Do rings of smooth functions differ from rings of continuous functions?

Let $M$, $N$ be connected nondiscrete compact smooth manifolds. Can the ring of continuous functions on $M$ be isomorphic to the ring of smooth functions on $N$?
Arshak Aivazian's user avatar
43 votes
5 answers
3k views

Explicit elements of $K((x))((y)) \setminus K((x,y))$

In an answer to the popular question on common false beliefs in mathematics Examples of common false beliefs in mathematics I mentioned that many people conflate the two different kinds of formal ...
Pete L. Clark's user avatar
42 votes
6 answers
7k views

An algebra of "integrals"

When discussing divergent integrals with people, I got curious about the following: Is there an $\mathbb{R}$-algebra $A$ together with a map (could be defined on just a subspace) $$\int_0^{\infty}: ...
36min's user avatar
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42 votes
4 answers
3k views

What is the Krull dimension of the ring of holomorphic functions on a complex manifold?

Consider a connected holomorphic manifold $X$ and its ring of holomorphic functions $\mathcal O(X).$ My general question is simply: in which cases is the Krull dimension $\dim \mathcal O(X)$ known? ...
Georges Elencwajg's user avatar
42 votes
4 answers
7k views

Serre intersection formula and derived algebraic geometry?

Let $X$ be a regular scheme (all local rings are regular). Let $Y,Z$ be two closed subschemes defined by ideals sheaves $\mathcal I,\mathcal J$. Serre gave a beautiful formula to count the ...
Hailong Dao's user avatar
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