MHB Prime elements in integral domains

Math Amateur
Gold Member
MHB
Messages
3,920
Reaction score
48
In Dummit and Foote, Section 8.3 on Unique Factorization Domains, Proposition 10 reads as follows:

Proposition 10: In an integral domain a prime element is always irreducible.

The proof reads as follows:

===========================================================

Suppose (p) is a non-zero prime ideal and p = ab.

Then ab = p \in (p), so by definition of prime ideal, one of a or b, say a, is in (p).

Thus a = pr for some r.

This implies p = ab = prb and so rb = 1 and b is a unit.

This shows that p is irreducible.

==============================================================

My question is as follows: Where in this proof do D&F use the fact that p is in an integral domain? (It almost reads as if this applies for any ring)

Peter
 
Physics news on Phys.org
In this step:
Peter said:
This implies p = ab = prb and so rb = 1 and b is a unit.

Since an integral domain has no zero divisors by definition there's a cancelation law which says:
Let R be an integral domain and a,b,c \in R. If a \neq 0 and ab=ac then b=c.
 
The world of 2\times 2 complex matrices is very colorful. They form a Banach-algebra, they act on spinors, they contain the quaternions, SU(2), su(2), SL(2,\mathbb C), sl(2,\mathbb C). Furthermore, with the determinant as Euclidean or pseudo-Euclidean norm, isu(2) is a 3-dimensional Euclidean space, \mathbb RI\oplus isu(2) is a Minkowski space with signature (1,3), i\mathbb RI\oplus su(2) is a Minkowski space with signature (3,1), SU(2) is the double cover of SO(3), sl(2,\mathbb C) is the...