Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/iii/paper-101/1/solution

The Laurent polynomial ring is a localization of a ring:
The Hilbert basis theorem makes a Noetherian ring, and Localization of a Noetherian ring preserves this property. Thus .
For separating finite Laurent support by an integer weight, take a nonzero Laurent polynomial and let be its finite set of exponent pairs with nonzero coefficients. Choose an integer such that
where the maximum is zero if has only one member. Set . If , then
so and then . Consequently all powers of in are distinct. The linear independence of the Laurent monomials prevents cancellation, giving
The choice depends on the finite support of ; a single fixed substitution need not detect every nonzero element.
For Noetherianity of subalgebras of a one-variable Laurent polynomial ring, let be a unital -subalgebra of . If , it is already a Noetherian ring. Otherwise we find a nonconstant and an ambient ring containing such that is a finitely generated module over .
If , choose a nonconstant polynomial in , where . Then is an integral element over , since it satisfies the monic polynomial equation
Thus is a finitely generated module over , generated by . The case is identical after replacing by .
In the remaining case is contained in neither of these two polynomial rings. There is an element with a positive exponent and an element with a negative exponent. If either already has both, use it as . Otherwise their sum has both, since the positive powers of the first and the negative powers of the second cannot cancel. We obtain
Multiplying this identity by gives a polynomial equation for with leading coefficient :
Dividing by makes it monic. Similarly, multiplication by gives a monic equation for after division by . Both generators are therefore integral elements over , so is a finitely generated module over .
In all three cases is a Noetherian ring, as a quotient of a one-variable polynomial ring. The subalgebra is also a -submodule, so it is a Noetherian module. Every ideal of is a -submodule of and is therefore finitely generated over , hence over . This proves
For the final request, take the following subalgebra of the two-variable Laurent polynomial ring:
Let , an ideal of . We have
as -vector spaces. In particular, the classes of , for , are linearly independent. If had finitely many generators as an -module, their classes would span over , contradicting its infinite dimension. Hence is not finitely generated and is not a Noetherian ring. This illustrates why the preceding result is special to one Laurent variable.

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