Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/iii/paper-101/2/d/solution

Yes: can have nonzero zero divisors. Let , a direct product of rings, where is any field. The nonzero idempotents and satisfy , so both are zero divisors.
There are exactly two prime ideals:
Indeed, any prime ideal must contain or , since their product is zero. If it contains , it contains and corresponds to a prime ideal of the quotient ring , whose only prime ideal is zero; hence it equals . The other case gives .
For the localization at a prime ideal , every denominator has , and
is an isomorphism. It is surjective using constant first-coordinate fractions. It is injective because a numerator with first coordinate zero is annihilated by , so its fraction is zero. Interchanging the coordinates proves .
Thus the localization at a prime ideal is a field in every case, although has zero divisors. The obstruction to using the previous part's argument is that the two nonzero factors of a zero product can survive at different prime ideals.

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