Lemma 10.15.1. Let R be a ring, I and J two ideals and \mathfrak p a prime ideal containing the product IJ. Then \mathfrak {p} contains I or J.
10.15 Miscellany
The proofs in this section should not refer to any results except those from the section on basic notions, Section 10.3.
Proof. Assume the contrary and take x \in I \setminus \mathfrak p and y \in J \setminus \mathfrak p. Their product is an element of IJ \subset \mathfrak p, which contradicts the assumption that \mathfrak p was prime. \square
Lemma 10.15.2 (Prime avoidance). Let R be a ring. Let I_ i \subset R, i = 1, \ldots , r, and J \subset R be ideals. Assume
J \not\subset I_ i for i = 1, \ldots , r, and
all but two of I_ i are prime ideals.
Then there exists an x \in J, x\not\in I_ i for all i.
Proof. The result is true for r = 1. If r = 2, then let x, y \in J with x \not\in I_1 and y \not\in I_2. We are done unless x \in I_2 and y \in I_1. Then the element x + y cannot be in I_1 (since that would mean x + y - y \in I_1) and it also cannot be in I_2.
For r \geq 3, assume the result holds for r - 1. After renumbering we may assume that I_ r is prime. We may also assume there are no inclusions among the I_ i. Pick x \in J, x \not\in I_ i for all i = 1, \ldots , r - 1. If x \not\in I_ r we are done. So assume x \in I_ r. If J I_1 \ldots I_{r - 1} \subset I_ r then J \subset I_ r (by Lemma 10.15.1) a contradiction. Pick y \in J I_1 \ldots I_{r - 1}, y \not\in I_ r. Then x + y works. \square
Lemma 10.15.3. Let R be a ring. Let x \in R, I \subset R an ideal, and \mathfrak p_ i, i = 1, \ldots , r be prime ideals. Suppose that x + I \not\subset \mathfrak p_ i for i = 1, \ldots , r. Then there exists a y \in I such that x + y \not\in \mathfrak p_ i for all i.
Proof. We may assume there are no inclusions among the \mathfrak p_ i. After reordering we may assume x \not\in \mathfrak p_ i for i < s and x \in \mathfrak p_ i for i \geq s. If s = r + 1 then we are done. If not, then we can find y \in I with y \not\in \mathfrak p_ s. Choose f \in \bigcap _{i < s} \mathfrak p_ i with f \not\in \mathfrak p_ s. Then x + fy is not contained in \mathfrak p_1, \ldots , \mathfrak p_ s. Thus we win by induction on s. \square
Lemma 10.15.4 (Chinese remainder). Let R be a ring.
If I_1, \ldots , I_ r are ideals such that I_ a + I_ b = R when a \not= b, then I_1 \cap \ldots \cap I_ r = I_1I_2\ldots I_ r and R/(I_1I_2\ldots I_ r) \cong R/I_1 \times \ldots \times R/I_ r.
If \mathfrak m_1, \ldots , \mathfrak m_ r are pairwise distinct maximal ideals then \mathfrak m_ a + \mathfrak m_ b = R for a \not= b and the above applies.
Proof. Let us first prove I_1 \cap \ldots \cap I_ r = I_1 \ldots I_ r as this will also imply the injectivity of the induced ring homomorphism R/(I_1 \ldots I_ r) \rightarrow R/I_1 \times \ldots \times R/I_ r. The inclusion I_1 \cap \ldots \cap I_ r \supset I_1 \ldots I_ r is always fulfilled since ideals are closed under multiplication with arbitrary ring elements. To prove the other inclusion, we claim that the ideals
generate the ring R. We prove this by induction on r. It holds when r = 2. If r > 2, then we see that R is the sum of the ideals I_1 \ldots \hat I_ i \ldots I_{r - 1}, i = 1, \ldots , r - 1. Hence I_ r is the sum of the ideals I_1 \ldots \hat I_ i \ldots I_ r, i = 1, \ldots , r - 1. Applying the same argument with the reverse ordering on the ideals we see that I_1 is the sum of the ideals I_1 \ldots \hat I_ i \ldots I_ r, i = 2, \ldots , r. Since R = I_1 + I_ r by assumption we see that R is the sum of the ideals displayed above. Therefore we can find elements a_ i \in I_1 \ldots \hat I_ i \ldots I_ r such that their sum is one. Multiplying this equation by an element of I_1 \cap \ldots \cap I_ r gives the other inclusion. It remains to show that the canonical map R/(I_1 \ldots I_ r) \rightarrow R/I_1 \times \ldots \times R/I_ r is surjective. For this, consider its action on the equation 1 = \sum _{i=1}^ r a_ i we derived above. On the one hand, a ring morphism sends 1 to 1 and on the other hand, the image of any a_ i is zero in R/I_ j for j \neq i. Therefore, the image of a_ i in R/I_ i is the identity. So given any element (\bar{b_1}, \ldots , \bar{b_ r}) \in R/I_1 \times \ldots \times R/I_ r, the element \sum _{i=1}^ r a_ i \cdot b_ i is an inverse image in R.
To see (2), by the very definition of being distinct maximal ideals, we have \mathfrak {m}_ a + \mathfrak {m}_ b = R for a \neq b and so the above applies. \square
Lemma 10.15.5. Let R be a ring. Let n \geq m. Let A be an n \times m matrix with coefficients in R. Let J \subset R be the ideal generated by the m \times m minors of A.
For any f \in J there exists a m \times n matrix B such that BA = f 1_{m \times m}.
If f \in R and BA = f 1_{m \times m} for some m \times n matrix B, then f^ m \in J.
Proof. For I \subset \{ 1, \ldots , n\} with |I| = m, we denote by E_ I the m \times n matrix of the projection
and set A_ I = E_ I A, i.e., A_ I is the m \times m matrix whose rows are the rows of A with indices in I. Let B_ I be the adjugate (transpose of cofactor) matrix to A_ I, i.e., such that A_ I B_ I = B_ I A_ I = \det (A_ I) 1_{m \times m}. The m \times m minors of A are the determinants \det A_ I for all the I \subset \{ 1, \ldots , n\} with |I| = m. If f \in J then we can write f = \sum c_ I \det (A_ I) for some c_ I \in R. Set B = \sum c_ I B_ I E_ I to see that (1) holds.
If f 1_{m \times m} = BA then by the Cauchy-Binet formula (72) we have f^ m = \sum b_ I \det (A_ I) where b_ I is the determinant of the m \times m matrix whose columns are the columns of B with indices in I. \square
Lemma 10.15.6. Let R be a ring. Let n \geq m. Let A = (a_{ij}) be an n \times m matrix with coefficients in R, written in block form as
where A_1 has size m \times m. Let B be the adjugate (transpose of cofactor) matrix to A_1. Then
where f = \det (A_1) and c_{ij} is (up to sign) the determinant of the m \times m minor of A corresponding to the rows 1, \ldots , \hat j, \ldots , m, i.
Proof. Since the adjugate has the property A_1B = B A_1 = f the first block of the expression for AB is correct. Note that
where A_1^{ij} means A_1 with the jth row and kth column removed. This last expression is the row expansion of the determinant of the matrix in the statement of the lemma. \square
Lemma 10.15.7. Let R be a nonzero ring. Let n \geq 1. Let M be an R-module generated by < n elements. Then any R-module map f : R^{\oplus n} \to M has a nonzero kernel.
Proof. Choose a surjection R^{\oplus n - 1} \to M. We may lift the map f to a map f' : R^{\oplus n} \to R^{\oplus n - 1} (Lemma 10.5.2). It suffices to prove f' has a nonzero kernel. The map f' : R^{\oplus n} \to R^{\oplus n - 1} is given by a matrix A = (a_{ij}). If one of the a_{ij} is not nilpotent, say a = a_{ij} is not, then we can replace R by the localization R_ a and we may assume a_{ij} is a unit. Since if we find a nonzero kernel after localization then there was a nonzero kernel to start with as localization is exact, see Proposition 10.9.12. In this case we can do a base change on both R^{\oplus n} and R^{\oplus n - 1} and reduce to the case where
Hence in this case we win by induction on n. If not then each a_{ij} is nilpotent. Set I = (a_{ij}) \subset R. Note that I^{m + 1} = 0 for some m \geq 0. Let m be the largest integer such that I^ m \not= 0. Then we see that (I^ m)^{\oplus n} is contained in the kernel of the map and we win. \square
Lemma 10.15.8. Let R be a nonzero ring. Let n, m \geq 0 be integers. If R^{\oplus n} is isomorphic to R^{\oplus m} as R-modules, then n = m.
Proof. Immediate from Lemma 10.15.7. \square
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