The determinant-one cyclic quotient of the affine plane has the closed embedding
Here denotes the cyclic group generated by the given diagonal matrix. We establish the presentation of the polynomial invariant ring and verify that its fibres really are the group orbits.
On the coordinate ring , the inverse-pullback action multiplies by . Since these monomials are a basis, a polynomial is invariant precisely when each of its nonzero monomials satisfies . If , such a monomial is ; if , it is . Therefore
These generators give a surjective homomorphism , and lies in its kernel of a ring homomorphism. To prove there are no further relations, reduce any monomial using . The result is a linear combination of
Their images are respectively , and . All have distinct exponent pairs, so they are linearly independent in . Any polynomial in the kernel of a ring homomorphism has zero reduced expression and hence belongs to . Consequently
This proves the claimed closed subvariety embedding of the affine quotient.
For surjectivity of , if choose and set . Then . If , the relation forces ; choose and any th root of for . If two points have the same image and , equality of their th powers gives and equality of gives . If , both first coordinates vanish, and the same argument using gives the orbit relation; the case has only that one point in its fibre. Thus every fibre is exactly one group orbit.
The map is finite: and satisfy the monic equations and , and the finitely many monomials , , span as a module over its polynomial invariant ring. A finite morphism is closed when it is surjective as here and therefore gives the quotient topology. For a principal open subset defined by an invariant , its regular functions pull back to and
Indeed, because is invariant, an invariant fraction with denominator has invariant numerator. These principal open subsets cover the affine hypersurface, proving the required local equality of invariant regular functions. Together with the orbit fibres, this verifies the geometric quotient, not merely a bijection of underlying sets.
The ring of integers is , since , and its discriminant is . Rationalizing gives
Both are algebraic integers, so is a unit. Set . Since ,
Also . It is the unique ideal of ideal norm two: any quotient of size two is , and the image of must satisfy , hence be one. The kernel of a ring homomorphism onto is uniquely , which is .
The given Minkowski constant means every ideal class has an integral representative of ideal norm at most . Such a ideal norm is one or two. The norm-one ideal is the whole ring, and the sole norm-two ideal is principal. Thus the class number is one.
If , the principal ideal has ideal norm two and hence equals . Its generator differs from by a unit. Conversely multiplication by a norm-one unit preserves the field norm two. With the assumed fundamental unit, all units are ; in fact a norm-minus-one unit is impossible since has no solution. Therefore the complete answer is
For and the positive sign, the product is , giving ; checks the result.
For a commutative ring and a multiplicative subset containing , the universal property of localization specifies a pair with a unital ring homomorphism, such that every , , is a unit, and any unital ring homomorphism into a commutative ring that sends to units factors uniquely through . Thus there is a unique satisfying . The property determines the pair up to a unique compatible isomorphism.
For existence, take pairs and declare
The extra multiplier is essential when has zero divisors. This is an equivalence relation: for transitivity, multiply the two cross-multiplication equations by appropriate denominators and add them, using the product of their annihilating multipliers. Write the class as and define
Multiplying the defining equivalence equations verifies that these operations are well defined. They give a commutative ring, and has inverse . The required map is necessarily
It is well defined because applying to and cancelling the units equates the two images. Its addition and multiplication laws follow directly from the fraction formulas. This establishes existence and the universal property of localization. If , this construction gives the zero ring, which is allowed as a localization.
For a prime ideal , its complement is multiplicatively closed, and localization at a prime ideal means . The map
is well defined and surjective, with kernel of a ring homomorphism : a numerator has zero image exactly when it belongs to . Since is an integral domain, its field of fractions is a nonzero field, so is a proper maximal ideal. Every fraction with is a unit, with inverse . Every fraction with belongs to this proper ideal and cannot be a unit. Thus the nonunits are exactly , and every proper ideal lies within it. Consequently
Now suppose each is reduced. If is nilpotent, its image is nilpotent in every , hence is zero. If , its annihilator is a proper ideal, so choose a maximal ideal containing it. Maximal ideals in a commutative ring are prime ideals. The vanishing criterion in a module localization would give for some . But then , a contradiction. Hence is reduced. This is reducedness is detected by prime localizations; no finiteness hypothesis is needed.
The stronger local-domain condition does not force to be an integral domain. Take for a field . Its only prime ideals are and : a prime ideal must contain one of the orthogonal idempotents and , and the remaining quotient is the field . At , inverting kills the second component, so ; similarly . Both localizations are integral domains, but
is a product of nonzero elements in . Therefore the answer is no, as illustrated by domain prime localizations do not imply a domain.
If is an affine scheme, each reduced irreducible component is a closed subscheme, hence an affine scheme. We prove the converse by explicit affine gluing along closed subschemes.
First suppose is the scheme-theoretic union of two closed subschemes which are affine schemes and : their defining ideal sheaves have zero intersection. Their scheme-theoretic intersection is a closed subscheme of both, hence an affine scheme. Write
The two maps and are surjective. Form the fiber product of rings
Both projections are surjective. Let and . Then
For the last equality, the common image map is surjective, and its kernel of a ring homomorphism consists exactly of pairs whose two coordinates map to zero. Therefore has closed pieces isomorphic to and , with intersection . They cover it because each prime ideal contains or , as .
A finite closed cover determines the topology: a subset is closed if and only if its intersections with both closed pieces are closed. The identifications of therefore give a homeomorphism between and . To check the structure sheaf, on the elementary ideal-intersection sequence gives
It is exact on stalks, by . The same sequence holds on , using . Under the homeomorphism, the two middle sheaves and their restriction maps identify, so their kernels identify as sheaves of rings. This identifies the structure sheaves, giving an isomorphism of schemes . The intersection need not be reduced.
Now a Noetherian scheme has finitely many irreducible components . Induct on . For , the reduced scheme is its single reduced irreducible component, so is an affine scheme. For , let and let be the reduced union of the remaining irreducible components. Its components are the corresponding , so is an affine scheme by induction. The defining ideal sheaves of and have zero intersection: their intersection is the ideal sheaf of the reduced union of all components, which is zero because is reduced. The two-piece argument proves that is an affine scheme. The empty scheme is and causes no exception. Hence
We first establish the nilradical as the intersection of prime ideals:
Every nilpotent element belongs to every prime ideal. In the other direction, if is not nilpotent, the multiplicative subset avoids zero. By the Zorn lemma, there is an ideal maximal among those disjoint from . It is a prime ideal: if and neither nor belongs to , then and each meet . Multiplying elements in these two intersections gives an element of lying in , a contradiction. Since , this proves the identity. The identity also holds for the zero ring, with the intersection over an empty family interpreted as the whole ring.
A Zariski-closed set contains the image of exactly when
The last equality follows because is a nilpotent element exactly when for some . Consequently the smallest Zariski-closed set containing the image, namely its closure, is
This is all of precisely when the kernel of a ring homomorphism is contained in every prime ideal of . Hence
The equivalence relation defining the localization at a prime ideal gives
Therefore
Equivalently, all zero divisors of must lie in . To prove necessity, if and with , then in , contradicting the hypothesis that the map is injective. Conversely, if every denominator annihilates no nonzero element, the displayed kernel of a ring homomorphism is zero, so the map is injective.
An integral domain automatically satisfies this criterion at every prime ideal, but the criterion itself does not require to be an integral domain.
Yes. Taking the constant coefficient defines a surjective ring homomorphism
Its kernel of a ring homomorphism is , so the first isomorphism theorem for rings gives .
We prove the needed preservation result. If is a Noetherian ring and is an ideal, any ascending chain of ideals in lifts under the quotient ring homomorphism to an ascending chain of ideals in . The lifted chain stabilizes; surjectivity makes the original chain stabilize as well. Hence every quotient ring of a Noetherian ring is Noetherian.
Applying this with and gives
Using the assumed square-free polynomial property, factor
into distinct monic polynomials that are irreducible polynomials, with . Part (b)(iii) identifies with , where .
By the first isomorphism theorem for rings, the image from part (c)(i) is , where is the kernel of a ring homomorphism. By part (a)(ii), for ideals . A field has only the zero ideal and the whole field as ideals, so each is either or the zero ring. Consequently, for a subset ,
This is the quotient of a finite product of fields principle. The subset is nonempty because , whereas the zero ring has only one unit. By part (a)(i),
Each factor is a positive integer. Since is a prime number, exactly one factor is and all remaining factors are one. Thus
so is a Mersenne prime. If with , then would be a proper divisor of ; thus is itself a prime number, although only the displayed form is needed.
The assumed square-free polynomial property can also be checked directly: in characteristic of a ring two, the formal derivative of is because is odd. These two polynomials have greatest common divisor one, since does not divide , so no repeated irreducible polynomial factor occurs.
A quotient ring of a finite direct product of rings whose factors are fields is a product of a subset of those factors. By ideals of a finite product of rings, write . Since a field has only the zero ideal and the whole field as ideals, every is one of these. The ring homomorphism is surjective with kernel of a ring homomorphism , so the first isomorphism theorem for rings gives . Discard the zero ring factors. If no factors survive, the result is the zero ring.