Gaussian Semigroups Research Articles

1. Let L be a noetherian domain that is integrally closed in its quotient field F. To each ideal A of L is assigned an ideal A,a' the integral closure or completion of A, that consists of all elements x E L for which an equation of the form, xn + a1xn + * + an = 0, ai eAr, holds. If Q is the set of all valuations v of F such that the associated valuation ring R, contains L, then Aa coincides with the ideal Ab = {x; v(x) > v(A), V v E Q}, [2; 3]. An ideal A is said to be complete if A = Aa, and the set of all complete ideals is denoted by F(L). If A and B belong to F(L), the product AB may not belong to F(L), but the completion of the product (AB)a does. Hence a binary composition x is defined on F(L) by the condition, A x B = (AB)a. Under this composition F(L) is a commutative semigroup with an identity in which the cancellation law holds [2]. In case L is a two dimensional regular local ring, Zariski has shown [4, Appendix 5] that (1(L), x) is a Gaussian semigroup, and that the composition x is ordinary product. In this paper we study the case in which L is a two dimensional normal local domain which is subject to conditions less stringent than regularity. (See ?2 below.) It is shown that modulo a simple equivalence relation the semigroup (FO(L), x) is Gaussian, where Fo(L) is the subset of F(L) that consists of primary ideals belonging to the maximal ideal of L. However (FO(L), x) is not Gaussian in an absolute sense for in simple examples it is seen that the maximal ideal M of L is an irreducible element of (F(L), x) that is not prime. (Here we are using the semigroup terminology of Jacobson [1, Chapter IV].) Our methods are direct extensions of those of Zariski. In case L is regular, the form ring associated with L and the sequence of powers of the maximal ideal M is a polynomial ring over a field and Zariski's arguments are based in part on the fact that such a ring is a unique factorization domain. In our case the form ring is an integrally closed noetherian domain, and we obtain results analogous to Zariski's by using the Artin theory of factorization in the sense of quasi-equality that is valid in such domains.