Valuation rings are derived splinters

Abstract

We give three proofs that valuation rings are derived splinters: a geometric proof using absolute integral closure, a homological proof which reduces the problem to checking that valuation rings are splinters (which is done in the second author’s PhD thesis and which we reprise here), and a proof by approximation which reduces the problem to Bhatt’s proof of the derived direct summand conjecture. The approximation property also shows that smooth algebras over valuation rings are splinters.