Pairs of Rings with the Same Prime Ideals

Abstract

There are numerous instances in which the partners in an extension of commutative rings R ⊂ T have the same prime ideals, i.e., in which Spec(R) = Spec(T). Although this equality is intended to be taken set-theoretically, the identification easily extends to the corresponding spaces endowed with their Zariski topologies (see Proposition 3.5(a)), but of course need not extend to an identification of Spec(R) and Spec(T) as affine schemes. Perhaps the most striking recent illustration of this phenomenon arises from the work of Hedstrom and Houston [14] in which R is a pseudo-valuation domain and T is a suitable valuation overring. Other examples may be found by means of the D + M construction, either in its traditional form [12, p. 560] or in the generalized situation introduced by Brewer and Rutter [5].