Lagmental Vicfred

Integral Elements Form a Subring by Vicfred

Last updated: Mon 23 September 2024

Sums and products of elements integral over A remain integral over A. The formulas are more useful when each symbol has a job rather than merely decorating the theorem.

Objects and notation

An element \(b\) is integral over \(A\) when it satisfies a monic polynomial with coefficients in \(A\). An extension \(A\subseteq B\) is integral when every \(b\in B\) has this property.

$$ \overline A_B=\{b\in B:b\text{ is integral over }A\} $$

A reliable calculation names domain and codomain. The notation \(\mathsf{data}\mapsto\mathsf{claim}\) is harmless only after both \(\operatorname{dom}\) and \(\operatorname{cod}\) have been fixed.

$$ b,c\in\overline A_B\Longrightarrow b+c,\ bc\in\overline A_B $$

Push the symbols

The following line is the smallest calculation that still exercises the mechanism. It keeps nested delimiters and the order of operations explicit.

$$ A[b,c]\ \text{finite over }A\quad\Longrightarrow\quad\begin{cases}b+c\text{ integral},\\bc\text{ integral}.\end{cases} $$

Structural reading

What survives the example is not its particular numbers but the relation encoded by the two rows below. That relation is the part worth transporting to a new setting.

$$ \begin{aligned} \mathsf{D}\;&:\quad \overline A_B=\{b\in B:b\text{ is integral over }A\},\\[5pt] \mathsf{C}\;&:\quad b,c\in\overline A_B\Longrightarrow b+c,\ bc\in\overline A_B. \end{aligned} $$

A hypothesis worth keeping

Algebraic over a fraction field and integral over the base ring are different conditions. Denominators make many algebraic elements nonintegral.

$$ \boxed{\begin{gathered} \text{compact conclusion}\\[-2pt] b,c\in\overline A_B\Longrightarrow b+c,\ bc\in\overline A_B \end{gathered}} $$

The result is compact enough to reuse without pretending that the caveat has disappeared. The worked line remains the quickest consistency check.

This article was posted on Tue 31 May 2016. Facts and circumstances may have changed since publication.
Please contact me before jumping to conclusions if something seems wrong or unclear.