The Stacks project

Lemma 10.22.1. Let $R$ be a ring. Let $T \subset \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R)$ be a subset of the spectrum. The following are equivalent

  1. $T$ is closed and is a union of connected components of $\mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R)$,

  2. $T$ is an intersection of open and closed subsets of $\mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R)$, and

  3. $T = V(I)$ where $I \subset R$ is an ideal generated by idempotents.

Moreover, the ideal in (3) if it exists is unique.

Proof. By Lemma 10.17.9 and Topology, Lemma 5.12.12 we see that (1) and (2) are equivalent. Assume (2) and write $T = \bigcap U_\alpha $ with $U_\alpha \subset \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R)$ open and closed. Then $U_\alpha = D(e_\alpha )$ for some idempotent $e_\alpha \in R$ by Lemma 10.21.3. Then setting $I = (1 - e_\alpha )$ we see that $T = V(I)$, i.e., (3) holds. Finally, assume (3). Write $T = V(I)$ and $I = (e_\alpha )$ for some collection of idempotents $e_\alpha $. Then it is clear that $T = \bigcap V(e_\alpha ) = \bigcap D(1 - e_\alpha )$.

Suppose that $I$ is an ideal generated by idempotents. Let $e \in R$ be an idempotent such that $V(I) \subset V(e)$. Then by Lemma 10.17.2 we see that $e^ n \in I$ for some $n \geq 1$. As $e$ is an idempotent this means that $e \in I$. Hence we see that $I$ is generated by exactly those idempotents $e$ such that $T \subset V(e)$. In other words, the ideal $I$ is completely determined by the closed subset $T$ which proves uniqueness. $\square$


Comments (0)

There are also:

  • 2 comment(s) on Section 10.22: Connected components of spectra

Post a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked.

In your comment you can use Markdown and LaTeX style mathematics (enclose it like $\pi$). A preview option is available if you wish to see how it works out (just click on the eye in the toolbar).

Unfortunately JavaScript is disabled in your browser, so the comment preview function will not work.

All contributions are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.




In order to prevent bots from posting comments, we would like you to prove that you are human. You can do this by filling in the name of the current tag in the following input field. As a reminder, this is tag 04PP. Beware of the difference between the letter 'O' and the digit '0'.