In what follows, R will denote a commutative domain with 1, and Q(≠R) its field of quotients, which is viewed here as an R-module. By RP we denote the localization of R at the maximal ideal P, and more generally, by MP = Rp⊗RM the localization of the R-module M at P, which we define to be the P-component of M. The symbol R* will mean the multiplicative monoid of nonzero elements of R. For a submonoid S of R*, Rs will denote the localization of R at S.

Suppose D is an integral domain with quotient field K and that L is an extension field of K. We show in Theorem 4 that if the complete integral closure of D is an intersection of Archimedean valuation domains on K, then the complete integral closure of D in L is an intersection of Archimedean valuation domains on L; this answers a question raised by Gilmer and Heinzer in 1965.

Let ℜ be the class of commutative rings R with comparable regular elements, that is, given two non zero-divisors in R, one divides the other. Applying the notion of V-valuation due to Harrison and Vitulli, we define the class V-val of V-valuated rings, which is contained in ℜ and contains the class of Manis valuation rings. We prove that these inclusions of classes are both proper. We investigate Prüfer rings inside ℜ, showing that there exist Prüfer rings which lie in ℜ but not in V-val; we prove that a ring R is a Prüfer valuation ring if and only if it is Prüfer and V-valuated, if and only if its lattice of regular ideals is a chain. Finally, we introduce and investigate the ideal I∞ of a ring R ∈ ℜ, which corresponds to the counterimage of ∞, whenever R is V-valuated.

Let A be a subring of a commutative ring B. If the natural mapping from the prime spectrum of B to the prime spectrum of A is injective (respectively bijective) then the pair (A, B) is said to have the injective (respectively bijective) Spec-map. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a pair of rings A and B graded by a free abelian group to have the injective (respectively bijective) Spec-map. For this we first deal with the polynomial case. Let l be a field and k a subfield. Then the pair of polynomial rings (k[X], l[X]) has the injective Spec-map if and only if l is a purely inseparable extension of k.

Let D be an atomic integral domain (i.e., a domain in which each nonzero nonunit of D can be written as a product of irreducible elements) and k any positive integer. D is known as a half factorial domain (HFD) if for any irreducible elements α1, …, αn, β1, …, βm of D the equality α1… αn = β1… βm implies that n = m. In [5] the present authors define D to be a k-half factorial domain (k-HFD) if the equality above along with the fact that n or m ≤ k implies that n = m. In this paper we consider the k-HFD property in Dedekind domains with small class group and prove the following Theorem: if D is a Dedekind domain with class group of order less than 16 then D is k-HFD for some integer k > 1, if, and only if, D is HFD.

Let R be a commutative, Noetherian ring and let Q be the total quotient ring of R. We shall call B an intermediate ring if R ⊂ B ⊂ Q. In [S] it is proved, for an integral domain R, that if R ⊂ B ⊂ Rf where B is flat over R, then B is a finitely generated R-algebra. We observe that the result holds for any commutative, Noetherian ring where f is a non-zero divisor. Our proof [Theorem 1.1] is a little different and straight; it is given for completeness. The idea of the proof in [S] lies in finding an ideal I of R such that IB = B, and for any λ∈I, b∈B there exists m ≥ 1 such that λmb ∈ R. We shall show that even if an intermediate ring B is finitely generated R-algebra, there may not exist any ideal I of R such that IB = B, moreover, if B is not finitely generated R-algebra, we may have IB = B for some ideal I in R.

A lattice-ordered power series algebra of a totally ordered field over a rooted abelian group may be constructed in a way that is arbitrary only in requiring that a factor set be chosen in the field and an extended total order be chosen on the group modulo its torsion subgroup. The resulting algebra is a field if and only if the subalgebra of elements with torsion support form a field. It follows that if the torsion subgroup may be independently embedded in the algebraic closure of the totally ordered field, or if the resulting algebra has no zero-divisors, then the algebra is a field. The set of supporting subsets for the power series may be characterized abstractly in such a way that previous representation theorems of lattice-ordered fields into power series algebras may be applied to produce representations into power series fields.

This paper gives variants of results from classical algebraic geometry and commutative algebra for quadratic algebras with conjugation. Quadratic algebras are essentially two-dimensional algebras with identity over commutative rings with identity, on which a natural operation of conjugation may be defined. We define the ring of conjugate polynomials over a quadratic algebra, and define c-varieties. In certain cases a close correspondence between standard varieties and c-varieties is demonstrated, and we establish a correspondence between conjugate and standard polynomials, which leads to variants of the Hilbert Nullstellensatz if the commutativering is an algebraically closed field. These results may be applied to automated Euclidean geometry theorem proving.

An extension R1 of a right chain ring R is called immediate if R1 has the same residue division ring and the same lattice of principal right ideals as R. Properties of such immediate extensions are studied. It is proved that for every R, maximal immediate extensions exist, but that in contrast to the commutative case maximal right chain rings are not necessarily linearly compact.

For any ring S we define and describe its characteristic ring, k(S). It plays the rôle of the usual characteristic even in rings whose additive structure, (S, +), is complicated. The ring k(S) is an invariant of (S, +) and also reflects certain non-additive properties of S. If R is a left faithful ring without identity element, we show how to use k(R) to embed R in a ring R1 with identity. This unital overring of R inherits many ring properties of R; for instance, if R is artinian, noetherian, semiprime Goldie, regular, biregular or a V-ring, so too is R1. In the case of regularity (or generalizations thereof), R1 satisfies a universal property with respect to the adjunction of an identity

Differentially simple local noetherian Q -algebras are shown to be always (a certain type of) subrings of formal power series rings. The result is established as an illustration of a general theory of differential filtrations and differential completions.

Filters and אּ-complete filters can be used to produce set-theoretic extensions of direct sums and direct products. They can be applied to generalize theorems in module theory which involve these. For example, the theorem, stating that a ring is noetherian, if, and only if, direct sums of injectives are injective, can be generalized, provided we replace noetherian by Xa-noetherian and direct sums by אּ- complete filter sums with a suitable property.

It is well known that for a ring with identity the Brown-McCoy radical is the maximal small ideal. However, in certain subrings of complete matrix rings, which we call structural matrix rings, the maximal small and minimal essential ideals coincide.

In this paper we characterize a class of commutative and a class of non-commutative rings for which this coincidence occurs, namely quotients of Prüfer domains and structural matrix rings over Brown-McCoy semisimple rings. A similarity between these two classes is obtained.

Let (R, ) be a commutative Noetherian local ring. We investigate conditions for a non-finitely generated R-module M to have a system of parameters. We prove that if

then any system of parameters for R/AnR (M) is a system of parameters for M. As an application we characterize by means of systems of parameters those balanced big Cohen–Macaulay R-modules M for which SuppR (M) = suppR (M).

The concept of a permutation polynomial function over a commutative ring with 1 can be generalized to multiplace functions in two different ways, yielding the notion of a k-ary permutation polynomial function (k > 1, k ∈ N) and the notion of a strict k-ary permutation polynomial function respectively. It is shown that in the case of a residue class ring Zm of the integers these two notions coincide if and only if m is squarefree.

Throughout this paper A is a commutative noetherian ring (with identity) and M is an A-module. We use to denote, for i ≥ 0, the i-th right derived functor of the local cohomology functor L with respect to an ideal a of A [8; 2.1].

Throughout this note the letters D and K denote a commutative integral domain with 1 and its field of fractions.

It is well-known that if R is a commutative ring with identity, M is a Noetherian R-module and I is an ideal of R such that M/IM has finite length, then the function n → lR (M /InM) is a polynomial function for n large (cf. [3], p. II-25), where lR denotes length as an R-module. In this note we are concerned with the function

where a1, … , ar is a multiplicity system for has finite length.

Let R be an associative ring which is not necessarily commutative. For any torsion theory τ on the category of left R-modules and for any nonnegative integer n we define and study the notion of the nth local cohomology functor with respect to τ. For suitably nice rings a bound for the nonvanishing of these functors is given in terms of the τ-dimension of the modules.

The purpose of this paper is to provide additional evidence to support our view that the modules of generalized fractions introduced in [8] are worth further investigation: we show that, for a module M over a (commutative, Noetherian) local ring A (with identity) having maximal ideal m and dimension n, the n-th local cohomology module may be viewed as a module of generalized fractions of M with respect to a certain triangular subset of An + 1, and we use this work to formulate Hochster's ‘Monomial Conjecture’ [2, Conjecture 1]; in terms of modules of generalized fractions and to make a quick deduction of one of Hochster's results which supports that conjecture.