FINITELY VALUATIVE DOMAINS

Abstract

For a pair of rings S ⊆ T and a nonnegative integer n, an element t ∈ T\S is said to be within n steps of S if there is a saturated chain of rings S = S0 ⊊ S1 ⊊ ⋯ ⊊ Sm = S[t] with length m ≤ n. An integral domain R is said to be n-valuative (respectively, finitely valuative) if for each nonzero element u in its quotient field, at least one of u and u-1 is within n (respectively, finitely many) steps of R. The integral closure of a finitely valuative domain is a Prüfer domain. Moreover, an n-valuative domain has at most 2n + 1 maximal ideals; and an n-valuative domain with 2n + 1 maximal ideals must be a Prüfer domain.