On the finiteness of a field-theoretic invariant for commutative rings

Abstract

If T is a (commutative unital) ring extension of a ring R, then Λ(T /R) is defined to be the supremum of the lengths of chains of intermediate fields between RP/P RP and TQ/QTQ, where Q varies over Spec(T) and P:= Q ∩ R. The invariant σ(R):= sup Λ(T/R), where T varies over all the overrings of R. It is proved that if Λ(S/R)< ∞ for all rings S between R and T, then (R, T) is an INC-pair; and that if (R, T) is an INC-pair such that T is a finite-type R-algebra, then Λ(T/R)< ∞. Consequently, if R is a domain with σ(R) < ∞, then the integral closure of R is a Prufer domain; and if R is a Noetherian G-domain, then σ(R) < ∞, with examples showing that σ(R) can be any given non-negative integer. Other examples include that of a onedimensional Noetherian locally pseudo-valuation domain R with σ(R)=∞.