Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/ib/paper-1/10e/a/solution

We prove prime avoidance by contradiction. Remove any prime ideal contained in another one on the list; this leaves the same union. If the ideal is contained in none of the remaining prime ideals, choose . For every , incomparability lets us choose . Set
For a one-element list, use the empty product . By the defining property of a prime ideal, , and also . But for every . Thus all summands except lie in , and consequently for every . On the other hand, because each . This contradicts the assumed containment in the union. Therefore

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