In the category of commutative rings, every domain embeds into a field. Is this true in the category of presentably symmetric monoidal stable $\infty$-categories? Here's what I mean by that. - Let $PrSt^{L,\otimes}$ be the $\infty$-category of symmetric monoidal closed presentable stable $\infty$-categories and left adjoint strong symmetric monoidal functors. - Say that $F: \mathcal C \to \mathcal D \in PrSt^{L,\otimes}$ is an _embedding_ if $F$ is conservative. - Say that $F: \mathcal C \to \mathcal D \in PrSt^{L,\otimes}$ is a _localization_ if its right adjoint is fully faithful. A localization is _trivial_ if it is the identity or if it is the map to the terminal object $0 \in PrSt^{L,\otimes}$. Note that (just as for commutative rings) we have an orthogonal factorization system on $PrSt^{L,\otimes}$ given by the localizations and the embeddings. - Say that $0 \neq \mathcal C \in PrSt^{L,\otimes}$ is a _field_ if there are no nontrivial localizations of $\mathcal C$. - Say that $0 \neq \mathcal C \in PrSt^{L,\otimes}$ is a _domain_ if $X \otimes Y = 0 \Rightarrow X = 0 \text{ or } Y = 0$ for $X,Y \in \mathcal C$. So now the question makes sense: **Question:** In $PrSt^{L,\otimes}$, does every domain embed into a field? **Notes:** - It's not hard to show that the converse holds -- if $\mathcal C \to \mathcal D$ is an embedding and $\mathcal D$ is a field, then $\mathcal C$ is a domain. - One can characterize the fields $\mathcal C \in PrSt^{L,\otimes}$ by the following property: for every nonzero $X \in \mathcal C$, there exist objects $Y_i$ and a colimit diagram $I = \varinjlim_i (Y_i \otimes X)$ where $I$ is the monoidal unit of $\mathcal C$. - There doesn't seem to be a "field of fractions" construction which automatically turns a domain into a field. - (At least under Vopenka's Principle) Every nontrivial localization $\mathcal C \to L\mathcal C \in PrSt^{L,\otimes}$ admits a further localization $LC \to \mathcal D$ which is _maximal_, i.e. such that $\mathcal D$ is a field. This is analogous to every ideal in a commutative ring being contained in a maximal one. - It's possible (under large cardinal hypotheses) that some sort of ultraproduct of all maximal localizations of a domain $\mathcal C$ might be a field into which $\mathcal C$ embeds diagonally, but I'm not sure.