Tuesday, 23 February 2016

ac.commutative algebra - Can an infinite commutative ring have a finite (but nonzero) number of non-nilpotent zero-divisors?

No, there is no such example.



Recall that the nilradical $N$ of $R$ is the ideal of nilpotent elements. It equals the intersection of all prime ideals of $R$.



On the other hand, the set $D$ of zero-divisors of $R$ can be expressed as the union of the radicals of the annihilators of individual nonzero elements of $R$ (Atiyah-MacDonald Prop. 1.15):



$$D = bigcup_{xneq 0} sqrt{(0:x)}$$



Here $(0:x)$ is an ideal, and its radical is the intersection of all the primes containing it. Thus $D$ is a union of ideals, each of which contains the nilradical $N$. If any of these ideals $I$ properly contains $N$, then if $N$ is infinite we conclude $Isetminus N$ is also infinite (since it contains a whole coset of $N$), and hence $Dsetminus N$ is infinite.



EDIT: Here's an easier proof in a different spirit, motivated by the preceding argument.



Suppose $x,yin R$, such that $x$ is nilpotent and $y$ is a zerodivisor. I claim $x+y$ is a zerodivisor. Let $zneq 0$ be such that $yz=0$. If $xz=0$, we are done. Otherwise, let $n$ be the smallest number such that $x^nz=0$ (which happens for some $n$ since $x$ is nilpotent). Then $x^{n-1}zneq 0$ but $x(x^{n-1}z)=0$, so $(x+y)x^{n-1}z=0$. Thus $x+y$ is a zerodivisor.



Now if $y$ is not nilpotent, $x+y$ is not nilpotent since the nilradical $N$ is an ideal. It follows that the coset $N+y$ consists entirely of nonnilpotent zerodivisors, so if $N$ is infinite then there are infinitely many nonnilpotent zerodivisors.

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