Past exam of the commutative algebra course of the University of Oxford 2023 2 b ii Solution 2026-10-25
Consider the kernel of a ring homomorphismSince is a Noetherian ring, this ideal has a finite generating set of an ideal, say . For each , choose with , and putThen by the prime ideal condition, and . If , take the empty product .
If maps to zero under the ring homomorphism from a, then in because is a unit there. Hence , so . The vanishing criterion in a module localization now gives already in . ThereforeThis is the finite generation clears localization kernels argument: the finite generating set of an ideal permits a single element outside to annihilate the entire kernel of a ring homomorphism.