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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Is there a Galois correspondence for ring extensions?

Given an ring extension of a (commutative with unit) ring, Is it possible to give a "good" notion of "degree of the extension"?. By "good", I am thinking in a degree which allow us, for instance, to ...
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What does the semiring of ideals of a ring R tell us about R?

Here is something I've wondered about since I was an undergraduate. Let $R$ be a ring (commutative, let's say, although the generalization to noncommutative rings is obvious). Ideals of $R$ can be ...
Timothy Chow's user avatar
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To what extent can fields be classified?

The study of algebraic geometry usually begins with the choice of a base field $k$. In practice, this is usually one of the prime fields $\mathbb{Q}$ or $\mathbb{F}_p$, or topological completions and ...
Drew Armstrong's user avatar
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Commutative algebra with a view toward algebraic _number theory_

Someone asked me this today, and I don't know what the standard answer is: Is there an analogue of David Eisenbud's rather amazing Commutative Algebra With a View Toward Algebraic Geometry but with a ...
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Automorphisms of a weighted projective space

What is the automorphisms group of the weighted projective space $\mathbb{P}(a_{0},...,a_{n})$ ? Consider the simplest case of a weighted projective plane, take for instance $\mathbb{P}(2,3,4)$; any ...
Puzzled's user avatar
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Origin of the term "localization" for the localization of a ring

I'm curious if the term localization in ring theory comes from algebraic geometry or not. The connection between localization and "looking locally about a point" seems like it should be the source ...
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Discriminant and Different

First some context. In most algebraic number theory textbooks, the notion of discriminant and different of an extension of number fields $L/K$, or rather, of the corresponding extension $B/A$ of their ...
Joël's user avatar
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Noether's normalization lemma over a ring A

Given a field $k$ and a finitely generated $k$-algebra $R$ without zero divisors, one knows that there exist $x_1, \ldots, x_n$ algebraically independent such that $R$ is integral over $k[x_1, \ldots, ...
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To prove the Nullstellensatz, how can the general case of an arbitrary algebraically closed field be reduced to the easily-proved case of an uncountable algebraically closed field?

In his answer to a question about simple proofs of the Nullstellensatz (Elementary / Interesting proofs of the Nullstellensatz), Qiaochu Yuan referred to a really simple proof for the case of an ...
user2734's user avatar
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Criteria for irreducibility of polynomial

If $f, g\in \mathbb C[a,b]$ are polynomials in two variables, are there easy criteria that allow to see if $f(x,y)-g(t,z)\in \mathbb C[x,y,t,z]$ is irreducible? Thank you very much, best
Rurik's user avatar
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What are some toy models for the stable homotopy groups of spheres?

The graded ring $\pi_\ast^s$ of stable homotopy groups of spheres is a horrible ring. It is non-Noetherian, and nilpotent torsion outside of degree zero. Question: What are some "toy models" ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
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Does homology detect chain homotopy equivalence?

Is the following true: If two chain complexes of free abelian groups have isomorphic homology modules then they are chain homotopy equivalent.
Stephen Bigelow's user avatar
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Why are injective modules more complicated than projective modules?

For beginners in homological algebra, it is a fact of life that injective modules seems to be more mysterious than projective modules. For example, for finitely generated modules over a noetherian ...
temp's user avatar
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When can we prove constructively that a ring with unity has a maximal ideal?

Many commutative algebra textbooks establish that every ideal of a ring is contained in a maximal ideal by appealing to Zorn's lemma, which I dislike on grounds of non-constructivity. For Noetherian ...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
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Can one prove the elementary divisor theorem for PIDs by elementary matrix operations?

The elementary divisor theorem was originally proved by a calculation on integer matrices, using elementary (invertible) row and column operations to put the matrix into Smith normal form. That is ...
Colin McLarty's user avatar
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Who named it the Snake Lemma?

What is the history behind the colorful name of this result? Cartan-Eilenberg states it without any particular fanfare.
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Is $\widehat{\mathbb{Z}}[[t]]\cong\widehat{\mathbb{Z}}[[\widehat{\mathbb{Z}}]]$?

Let $\widehat{\mathbb{Z}}[[\widehat{\mathbb{Z}}]] := \varprojlim_{n,m}(\mathbb{Z}/n)[x]/(x^m-1)$ be the complete group algebra of the profinite free group of rank 1. In Corollary 5.9.2 of Ribes-...
stupid_question_bot's user avatar
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Pathological Examples of Dimension

I am trying to wrap my head around all the different notions of dimension (and their equivalences). To get a sense of this, it would be nice to know the subtle difficulties that arise. I thus think it ...
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Minimal number of generators of a homogeneous ideal (exercise in Hartshorne)

In the very first chapter Hartshorne proposes the following seemingly trivial exercise (ex. I.2.17(ii)): Show that a strict complete intersection is a set theoretic complete intersection. Here are ...
Andrea Ferretti's user avatar
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How slowly can a power of an ideal grow?

For a polynomial ideal $I\subset \mathbb{C}[x_1,x_2]$, let $D(I)$ be the smallest degree of any polynomial in $I$. How slowly can $D(I^n)$ grow as a function of $n$? For example, if $D(I^n)\leq 1....
Boris Bukh's user avatar
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Do DG-algebras have any sensible notion of integral closure?

Suppose R → S is a map of commutative differential graded algebras over a field of characteristic zero. Under what conditions can we say that there is a factorization R → R' → S ...
Tyler Lawson's user avatar
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Examples of Noetherian overkill

I have read in many places that the noetherian hypothesis is often overkill - both in commutative algebra and in ($\overset?=$) algebraic geometry. In particular, I've read that coherence and finite ...
Arrow's user avatar
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CH and automorphisms of ultrapowers of $\mathbb{Z}$ and $\mathbb{R}$

Notation and motivation. Given an algebraic structure $\mathbb{M}$ of cardinality at most the continuum and with countably many operations, and a nonprincipal ultrafilter $\cal{U}$ on a countably ...
Ali Enayat's user avatar
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A finitely generated $\mathbb{Z}$-algebra that is a field has to be finite

I was trying to understand completely the post of Terrence Tao on Ax-Grothendieck theorem. This is very cute. Using finite fields you prove that every injective polynomial map $\mathbb C^n\to \mathbb ...
aglearner's user avatar
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When is a blow-up non-singular?

Suppose that $X$ is a non-singular variety and $Z \subset X$ is a closed subscheme. When is the blow-up $\operatorname{Bl}_{Z}(X)$ non-singular? The blow-up of a non-singular variety along a non-...
jlk's user avatar
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Is projectiveness a Zariski-local property of modules? (Answered: Yes!)

I know that for a finitely presented $A$-module $M$ ($A$ a commutative ring), TFAE: $M$ is projective; $M$ is max-locally free, meaning that $M_{\mathfrak m}$ is free for every maximal ideal $\...
Andrew Critch's user avatar
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Axiomatic definition of integers

The real numbers can be axiomatically defined (up to isomorphism) as a Dedekind-complete ordered field. What is a similar standard axiomatic definition of the integer numbers? A commutative ordered ...
Victor Makarov's user avatar
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Discriminant of characteristic polynomial as sum of squares

The characteristic polynomial of a real symmetric $n\times n$ matrix $H$ has $n$ real roots, counted with multiplicity. Therefore the discriminant $D(H)$ of this polynomial is zero or positive. It is ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
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Why the stable module category?

Let $R$ be a ring (usually assumed to be Frobenius). The stable module category is what you get when you take the category $\mathsf{Mod}_R$ of $R$-modules, and kill the projective modules. (Of course, ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
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Anything special (historical?) about surface $x\cdot y\cdot z\ +\ x+y+z=0$?

QUESTION I wanted to introduce and develop the complex logarithm from scratch. As the result I've arrived a couple of months ago at the following identity after which the road to complex logarithm is ...
Włodzimierz Holsztyński's user avatar
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affine open subset of affine scheme

Let $X=Spec(A)$ be an affine scheme and $U=Spec(R)$ be an affine open subset of $X$. Is it true that $R$ is an localization of $A$, i.e. $R=S^{-1}A$ for some closed multiplication subset $S\subset A$ ?...
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What are the units in the ring of Laurent polynomials?

What are the units in $R[X,X^{-1}]$, where $R$ is a commutative ring with $1$? I know that the question for polynomial rings is a standard textbook exercise. However, I couldn't find a reference for ...
Seb's user avatar
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The number of ideals in a ring

Here is a question that I first asked in math.stackexchange, but I think the question must be proposed here. Let $R$ be a finite commutative ring with identity. Under what conditions the number of ...
alex alexeq's user avatar
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Using a known result without a specific reference

This is a question of mathematical writing. Let me know if it would be better suited to academia.SE. I am writing a paper in invariant theory. It uses some slightly heavy commutative algebra. There ...
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The first female algebraist in US/Britain?

Recently I dug up some biographical details of Lindsay Burch, of Hilbert-Burch Theorem fame, whose few papers have had quite an impact on commutative algebra. This made me curious about the first ...
Hailong Dao's user avatar
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What is the dimension of the product ring $\prod \mathbb Z/2^n\mathbb Z$ ?

In an anwswer to a question on our sister site here I mentioned that a reduced commutative ring $R$ has zero Krull dimension if and only if it is von Neumann regular i.e. if and only if for any $r\...
Georges Elencwajg's user avatar
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A ring such that all projectives are stably free but not all projectives are free?

This question is motivated by this recent question. Suppose $R$ is commutative, Noetherian ring and $M$ a finitely generated $R$-module. Let $FD(M)$ and $PD(M)$ be the shortest length of free and ...
Hailong Dao's user avatar
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Two questions about finiteness of ideal classes in abstract number rings

Let us say that an abstract number ring is an integral domain $R$ which is not a field, and which has the "finite norms" property: for any nonzero ideal $I$ of $R$, the quotient $R/I$ is finite. (I ...
Pete L. Clark's user avatar
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Does formally etale imply flat for noetherian schemes?

This is a followup to an earlier question I asked: Does formally etale imply flat? After some remarks I received on MO I noticed that this was answered to the negative by an answer to an earlier ...
mabli's user avatar
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Joyal's construction of the spectrum of a commutative ring

I am trying to understand bits and pieces of Lawvere's article Continuously Variable Sets; Algebraic Geometry = Geometric Logic. I'm not doing very well. I know this is a lot to ask, but basically, I ...
Arrow's user avatar
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Standard reduction to the artinian local case?

Where can I find a clear exposé of the so called "standard reduction to the local artinian (with algebraically closed residue field", a sentence I read everywhere but that is never completely unfold? ...
Workitout's user avatar
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Computation of fraction field of formal series over the integers

What is the fraction field $K$ of the domain $\mathbb Z[[X]]$? It is strictly smaller than the field of Laurent series $L=\operatorname {Frac}\mathbb Q[[X]]$, since $\sum_{i\geq 0}\frac {X^i}{i!}\in ...
Georges Elencwajg's user avatar
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Prime ideals in the ring of germs of continuous functions

We all know that the ring of germs of continuous functions at a point on, say $\mathbb{R}$, has a unique maximal ideal- namely, those functions that vanish at that point. Can anyone think of a single ...
Dylan Wilson's user avatar
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A Krull-like Theorem and its possible equivalence to AC

A well known equivalent of the Axiom of Choice is Krull's Maximal Ideal Theorem (1929): if $I$ is a proper ideal of a ring $R$ (with unity), then $R$ has a maximal ideal containing $I$. The proof is ...
Michael Kinyon's user avatar
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If a polynomial ring is finite free over a subring, is the subring polynomial?

Let $R = k[x_1, \ldots, x_n]$ for $k$ a field of characteristic zero and let $S \subset R$ be a graded sub-$k$-algebra (for the standard grading: $\deg x_i = 1$) such that $R$ is a free $S$-module of ...
David E Speyer's user avatar
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When does the relative differential $df=0$ imply that $f$ comes from the base?

Let $A \to B$ be a map of commutative rings, and $d : B \to I/I^2$ be defined by $df = f\otimes 1 - 1\otimes f$, where $I$ is the kernel of $B \otimes_A B \to B$, as in [Hartshorne II.8]. If $df=0$,...
Allen Knutson's user avatar
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Stability of real polynomials with positive coefficients

Say that a polynomial in an indeterminate $x$ with real coefficients of degree $d$ has positive coefficients if each of the coefficients of $x^d,\ldots,x^1,x^0$ is (strictly) positive. For $f$ a ...
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3 answers
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Nice algebraic statements independent from ZF + V=L (constructibility)

Background and motivation I've always been fascinated about algebraic statements independent from ZFC set theory. One such fascinating example comes from considering $\rm{Ext}^1_\mathbb{Z}(A,\mathbb{Z}...
Jason Polak's user avatar
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Fast computation of a Groebner basis. What is possible?

I need to compute a Groebner basis of 18 polynomials in 19 variables the terms of which have degree at most 3. My aim is to exploit a symmetry in a PDE problem and I am not an expert in algebra or ...
warsaga's user avatar
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Which rings are subrings of matrix rings?

In this question, all rings are commutative with a $1$, unless we explicitly say so, and all morphisms of rings send $1$ to $1$. Let $A$ be a Noetherian local integral domain. Let $T$ be a non-zero $...
Kevin Buzzard's user avatar