Category Archives: commutative-algebra

## When the set of prime ideals is linearly ordered

Imposing structure on the poset of prime ideals of a ring $R$ is one way to gain a hold onto its structure. The poset of prime ideals of $R$ is simply a fancy term for the set of prime ideals of $R$, partially ordered by inclusion. Usually this set is not totally ordered: in the […]

## Replacing two idempotents with one

Let $R$ be a commutative ring. Two idempotents $e$ and $f$ are called orthogonal if $ef = 0$. The archetypal example is $(0,1)$ and $(1,0)$ in a product ring $R\times S$. Let $e$ and $f$ be orthogonal idempotents. Then the ideal $(e,f)$ is equal to the ideal $(e + f)$. To see, this first note […]

## Number of irreducible polynomials over a finite field

Over a finite field, there are of course only finitely many irreducible monic polynomials. But how do you count them? Let $q = p^n$ be a power of a prime and let $N_q(d)$ denote the number of monic irreducible polynomials of degree $d$ over $\F_q$. The key to finding $N_q(d)$ is the following fact: the […]

## First-order characterisations of free and flat…projective?

Here is an interesting question involving free, projective, and flat modules that I will leave to the readers of this blog for now. First, consider free modules. If $R$ is a ring, then every $R$-module is free if and only if $R$ is a division ring. The property of $R$ being a division ring can […]