Spectrum is compact

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Revision as of 21:07, 15 March 2008 by Vipul (talk | contribs) (New page: {{spectrum topology fact}} ==Statement== The spectrum of a commutative unital ring is always a compact space. ==Proof== We shall prove...)
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This article gives a fact about the relation between ring-theoretic assumptions about a commutative unital ring and topological consequences for the spectrum
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Statement

The spectrum of a commutative unital ring is always a compact space.

Proof

We shall prove the statement using the finite intersection property formulation of compactness.

Given: R is a commutative unital ring, and X=Spec(R) is its spectrum. Suppose Vi is a collection of closed subsets (where iI, an indexing set) such that any finite intersection of the Vis is nonempty.

To prove: The intersection of all the Vis is nonempty.

Proof: Let I(V) denote the radical ideal corresponding to the closed set V under the Galois correspondence between a ring and its spectrum.

Clearly, we have, by definition:

Failed to parse (unknown function "\bigplus"): {\displaystyle \mathcal{I}(\bigcap_i V_i) = \bigplus \mathcal{I}(V_i)}

In other words, a prime ideal contains all the I(Vi)s if and only if it contians their sum.

Suppose the intersection of the Vis was empty. Then the left side would be the whole ring R, hence so would the right side. In other words, we'd have that R is the sum of the I(Vi)s.

But this would imply that 1R is in the sum of finitely many I(Vi)s, and that in turn would yield that the intersection of those finitely many Vis must be empty, contradicting the assumption of finite intersection property.