Prime ideals and Noetherian properties in vector lattices

Abstract

In this paper we study the set of prime ideals in vector lattices and how the properties of the prime ideals structure the vector lattice in question. The different properties that will be considered are firstly, that all or none of the prime ideals are order dense, secondly, that there are only finitely many prime ideals, thirdly, that every prime ideal is principal, and lastly, that every ascending chain of prime ideals is stationary (a property that we refer to as prime Noetherian). We also completely characterize the prime ideals in vector lattices of piecewise polynomials, which turns out to be an interesting class of vector lattices for studying principal prime ideals and ascending chains of prime ideals.