Work with the usual commutative unital Noetherian ring convention. First prove that every submodule of is a finitely generated module. For , a submodule is an ideal, hence finitely generated by Noetherianity. For the induction step, project a submodule onto its last coordinate. Its image is a finitely generated ideal; choose lifts in of its generators. The projection kernel lies in and is finitely generated by induction. The kernel generators together with the chosen lifts generate , since subtracting a combination of the lifts leaves an element of the kernel.
Now choose a surjection from a finite generating set of the module . For any submodule , its inverse image in is finitely generated by the result just proved. The images of those generators generate .
Every submodule of is finitely generated. In particular is a Noetherian module: the union of an ascending chain is a submodule, and its finite generators all belong to a single member of the chain, forcing eventual stabilization.
If , take the empty filtration. Otherwise a nonzero quotient is a finitely generated module. Because has the ascending chain condition on ideals, the nonempty collection of annihilators of nonzero elements of has a maximal element. Part (b), applied to , supplies with a prime ideal .
The map , , is surjective with kernel . The first isomorphism theorem gives . Let be the inverse image of under . Then
Repeat whenever the quotient remains nonzero. An infinite repetition would give a strictly ascending chain of submodules of the Noetherian module , contradicting part (a). Thus the process stops after finitely many steps, necessarily at .
This constructs the required prime filtration , with each successive quotient for a prime .
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.
The Artin-Rees lemma states that, for a Noetherian ring , an ideal , a finitely generated module , and a submodule , there is such that
Thus the filtration on induced from the I-adic filtration of is eventually determined by one of its terms.
For the proof, form the Rees ring and its Rees module:
Since is a Noetherian ring, write . Then , so it is a Noetherian ring by the Hilbert basis theorem. Generators of in degree zero generate as a module over , so this is a Noetherian module.
The graded submodule
is therefore finitely generated. Choose homogeneous generators with for some . For , taking degree- components gives
The same generators show that the final sum is exactly . This proves the Artin-Rees lemma. If , one may simply take .
Now let
It is a submodule of the Noetherian module , hence a finitely generated module. Apply the Artin-Rees lemma with and . Since is contained in every (including ), its conclusion reduces to
Write generators as . There is a matrix with entries in such that . Multiplication by the adjugate of shows that
The determinant is congruent to modulo , so it is for some . This determinant trick produces a single such element annihilating all of , and in particular annihilating each . If , use .
Conversely, if with , then . Iterating gives for every . Hence the exact description is
In a local ring with contained in the maximal ideal, every is a unit, so this also yields the usual vanishing form of the Krull intersection theorem.
For a failure without the Noetherian ring hypothesis, let and use the semigroup algebra
Its elements are finite sums of formal monomials , with multiplication . Each ring in the union is a polynomial ring and the inclusions are injective, so is an integral domain. It is not a Noetherian ring, since
Indeed the generator on the left is the square of the next generator, while division in the opposite direction would require a negative exponent, which is unavailable in .
Let be the ideal of elements with zero constant term, equivalently
It is proper because taking the constant term gives . Every generator is , with , so . Thus this is a nonzero idempotent ideal, with for every . Take
For every , the constant term of is , so . Since is an integral domain and , we have . This gives all three requested objects and proves that no element of the required form annihilates .
The set is a multiplicative subset, since . The localization of a ring consists of fractions , where
Similarly, the localization of a module consists of fractions , with the analogous equivalence relation. The canonical maps are
The Localization of a Noetherian ring is Noetherian. Since a finitely generated module over a Noetherian ring is a Noetherian module, localizing a finite generating set shows that is Noetherian over .
The prime ideal correspondence for localization identifies with the primes disjoint from . Here
so the spectrum of localization away from one plus an ideal is
An element maps to zero exactly when for some . Such an equation gives for every , proving one inclusion. Conversely, suppose . The Artin-Rees lemma applied to says that for some ,
Taking gives , so for some . Then and . Thus
For failure without Noetherianity, take
The strict chain shows that is not Noetherian. Since , one has , and hence . But is an integral domain, so its localization map into is injective. This is the non-Noetherian failure of the intersection formula for localization.
Suppose every submodule of is finitely generated. For an ascending chain , its union is a submodule. Finitely many generators of all lie in one , so and the chain stabilizes. Thus the ascending chain condition holds.
If the ascending chain condition holds, any nonempty collection of submodules has a maximal member: otherwise, starting from one member and repeatedly choosing a strictly larger one constructs a nonstationary ascending chain.
Finally, assume the maximal condition. Among the finitely generated submodules of a given , choose a maximal one . If , then is a larger finitely generated submodule for any , a contradiction. Hence every is finitely generated. These are the three equivalent characterizations of a Noetherian module.
If is Noetherian, every submodule of is a submodule of , and submodules of correspond to submodules of containing ; hence both are Noetherian.
Conversely, suppose and are Noetherian. For any , the intersection is finitely generated and the image is finitely generated. Lifting generators of the image and applying part i to
shows that is finitely generated. Thus is Noetherian.
False. The module over a ring over itself is Noetherian, because its submodules are the principal ideals , but the descending chain
shows that it is not an Artinian module.
True. This is the Artinian commutative ring is Noetherian theorem. One proof uses the nilpotent nilradical of an Artinian ring . The quotient is a finite product of fields. Each quotient is an Artinian module over the semisimple ring , hence has finite length and is Noetherian. The finite filtration
then makes a Noetherian module over itself, which is exactly the ascending chain condition on its ideals.
True. If is generated by , there is a surjection . The right exactness of the tensor product of modules gives a surjection
A finite direct sum of Noetherian modules is Noetherian, and a quotient of a Noetherian module is Noetherian. Hence is Noetherian.
An -module is Noetherian when every submodule is finitely generated, equivalently when every ascending chain of submodules stabilizes.
A free module is an -module with a basis: every element has a unique expression as a finite linear combination of basis elements.
A flat module is one for which the tensor functor is exact. Since tensor products are always right exact, it is equivalent to require that tensoring with preserve injections.
A projective module has the lifting property: for every surjection and every map , there is a map making the resulting triangle commute. Equivalently, is a direct summand of a free module.
Prime filtration Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
A prime filtration of a module over a commutative ring is a finite increasing chain from zero to the module with each nonzero successive quotient module isomorphic to for a prime ideal . Every finitely generated module over a Noetherian ring has one. In each nonzero quotient, a maximal annihilator of a module element is prime supplies a cyclic submodule ; lift it and repeat. The ascending chain condition for a Noetherian module makes the process terminate. This is not necessarily a composition series: the prime ideals need not be maximal.