Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 101 6 e Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
No. In the Gaussian integers, chooseIndeed, substituting gives , so is a prime ideal and its contraction is . Put . Modulo , becomes in , so . ThereforeWe show that is not an integral element over , using a direct reduction argument. Write , viewed inside . There is a ring homomorphismwhich reduces rational coefficients modulo . It is well defined because denominators in are not divisible by , and in . In particular, and .
If satisfied a monic equation over , saymultiplication by would give an equality in :Applying gives in , a contradiction. ConsequentlyThis exhibits why localization of an integral extension at a prime need not be integral. Localizing both rings by the same multiplicative subset preserves an integral extension, but inverts additional elements, including , whose image at the other prime ideal is zero. The original extension is integral because satisfies the monic equation : the subalgebra generated by finitely many integral elements property applies to .