Prime ideals in skew Laurent polynomial rings

Abstract

Let R be a commutative ring and {σ1,…,σn} a set of commuting automorphisms of R. Let T = be the skew Laurent polynomial ring in n indeterminates over R and let be the Laurent polynomial ring in n central indeterminates over R. There is an isomorphism φ of right R-modules between T and S given by φ(θj) = xj. We will show that the map φ induces a bijection between the prime ideals of T and the Γ-prime ideals of S, where Γ is a certain set of endomorphisms of the ℤ-module S. We can study the structure of the lattice of Γ-prime ideals of the ring S by using commutative algebra, and this allows us to deduce results about the prime ideal structure of the ring T. As an example, if R is a Cohen-Macaulay ℂ-algebra and the action of the σj on R is locally finite-dimensional, we will show that the ring T is catenary.