A -primary ideal is a proper ideal with radical of an ideal , such that and imply for some . Equivalently, when , the implication is , .
True for a nonempty finite family. Let , with each a -primary ideal. This intersection of ideals is proper. Its radical of an ideal is : if , choose with and put . Then . Conversely, implies .
If and , the primary ideal property gives for every , so . Therefore
As usual, the statement about finite intersections excludes the empty intersection, which is the whole ring and is not a primary ideal.
Distinct prime-power ideals are pairwise comaximal. For comaximal ideals, product equals intersection, so induction gives
The Chinese remainder theorem therefore gives the ring isomorphism
The ideal approximation theorem, proved by applying this Chinese-remainder map one prime power deeper, supplies
Equivalently, at every prime dividing .
Since , the fractional ideal
is an integral ideal and is a principal ideal. At every ,
, so .
Choose and with . Then
. For any ,
Thus
so every ideal of has a generating set of two elements.