Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 4 5 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
A nilpotent element belongs to every prime ideal and therefore to every maximal ideal, soFor the reverse containment, let be nonnilpotent. The localization of a ring is nonzero: if there, some power of would annihilate in . This is still a finite-type integer algebra, because it can be presented as .
Choose a maximal ideal of . Its residue field is a finite-type integer algebra, hence finite by part (a). Consider the image of in . It is a finite integral domain containing , so it is a field: multiplication by a nonzero element is injective on the finite set , hence surjective, and therefore has an inverse in .
The kernel of is consequently maximal. The image of is nonzero, since became a unit in and remains a unit in its nonzero residue field. Thus . Every nonnilpotent element can therefore be avoided by a maximal ideal, givingThis radical equality for finitely generated integer algebras uses part (a) to ensure that the contraction of the localized maximal ideal is maximal. Such contraction is not generally maximal for arbitrary localization of a ring; the finite-field image is the decisive additional step. The zero ring is immediate, with the intersection of its empty set of maximal ideals understood as the whole ring. No general theorem that integer algebras are Jacobson rings is being quoted.