The Stacks project

Proof. Fix an admissible sequence $(f_1, \ldots , f_ l)$ of $M$ such that

for $i = 1, \ldots , l$. Such an admissible sequence exists exactly because $M$ has length $l$. We will show that any element of $\det _\kappa (M)$ is a $\kappa $-multiple of the symbol $[f_1, \ldots , f_ l]$. This will prove the lemma.

Let $(e_1, \ldots , e_ l)$ be an admissible sequence of $M$. It suffices to show that $[e_1, \ldots , e_ l]$ is a multiple of $[f_1, \ldots , f_ l]$. First assume that $\langle e_1, \ldots , e_ l\rangle \not= M$. Then there exists an $i \in [1, \ldots , l]$ such that $e_ i \in \langle e_1, \ldots , e_{i - 1}\rangle $. It immediately follows from the first admissible relation that $[e_1, \ldots , e_ n] = 0$ in $\det _\kappa (M)$. Hence we may assume that $\langle e_1, \ldots , e_ l\rangle = M$. In particular there exists a smallest index $i \in \{ 1, \ldots , l\} $ such that $f_1 \in \langle e_1, \ldots , e_ i\rangle $. This means that $e_ i = \lambda f_1 + x$ with $x \in \langle e_1, \ldots , e_{i - 1}\rangle $ and $\lambda \in R^*$. By the second admissible relation this means that $[e_1, \ldots , e_ l] = \overline{\lambda }[e_1, \ldots , e_{i - 1}, f_1, e_{i + 1}, \ldots , e_ l]$. Note that $\mathfrak m f_1 = 0$. Hence by applying the third admissible relation $i - 1$ times we see that

Note that it is also the case that $ \langle f_1, e_1, \ldots , e_{i - 1}, e_{i + 1}, \ldots , e_ l\rangle = M$. By induction suppose we have proven that our original symbol is equal to a scalar times

for some admissible sequence $(f_1, \ldots , f_ j, e_{j + 1}, \ldots , e_ l)$ whose elements generate $M$, i.e., with $\langle f_1, \ldots , f_ j, e_{j + 1}, \ldots , e_ l\rangle = M$. Then we find the smallest $i$ such that $f_{j + 1} \in \langle f_1, \ldots , f_ j, e_{j + 1}, \ldots , e_ i\rangle $ and we go through the same process as above to see that

Continuing in this vein we obtain the desired result. $\square$