Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2015 / iii / Paper 1 / 2 / i / Solution

A prime ideal $P$ is a proper ideal such that $ab\in P$ implies $a\in P$ or $b\in P$. Equivalently $R/P$ is an integral domain.

For each $i$, and each $j\ne i$, choose $a_{ji}\in P_j\setminus P_i$, using incomparability. PutThen $b_i$ belongs to the other two prime ideals and does not belong to $P_i$, by primality. In particular each $b_i$ lies in the union. But $b_1+b_2+b_3\notin P_i$ for every $i$: modulo $P_i$, the sum equals $b_i\ne 0$. The union is not closed under addition and is not an ideal. This is a concrete instance of prime avoidance.

The union of three incomparable nonprime ideals example can retain pairwise incomparability. In the ringtakeThese distinct two-element ideals are pairwise incomparable, yetwhich is an ideal. None is prime: its quotient ring still contains a nonzero element of square zero. The three one-dimensional vector subspaces cover the two-dimensional vector space over ${\mathbb{F}}_2$.