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Re: Prime ideals in the ring of continuous functions

Subject: Re: Prime ideals in the ring of continuous functions
From: Robert Sheskey
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 10:07:33 -0700
Newsgroups: sci.math
In article <31617721.1161416029645.JavaMail.jakarta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, 
abp83@xxxxxxxxxx says...

>> [..]
>
>I'm very thankful to you. But, I have one more question:
>
>Consider ideal 
>I={f \in C[0,1] : lim_{x \to 0} f(x)/x^n=0, n=0,1,2,â?¦}
>Is I prime ideal?



No. In fact one can easily find a pair f, g such that fg=0 but neither 
f nor g is in I. Just let f be a continuous function that vanishes at 
zero and on [1/2n, 1/(2n-1)] but reaches a maximum of 1/2n on 
(1/(2n+1), 1/2n). Then there's a sequence x_n -> 0 such that f(x_n)>x_n 
so f is not in I. Then let g be a similar function that vanishes on 
[1/(2n+1),1/2n].

However you can combine this idea with the ultrafilter idea to get a 
prime ideal: 

Let E ={ (0,1/n) : n = 1,2,..}  E has the finite intersection property 
so it extends to an ultrafilter F (which is necessarily nonprincipal). 

Let I = {f : for every n there exists A_n in F such that |f(x)| < x^n  on A_n}

I is an ideal, in fact it is a proper subideal of m_0. (And it's not the
zero ideal since f(x) = x^(1/x) is in it.) To see that I is prime,
suppose fg in I. Then exists A_n such that f(x)g(x) < x^n on A_n. Let

B_n = {x : |f(x)| < x^n}
C_n = {x : |g(x)| < x^n}

We have that A_{2n} is a subset of  B_n \cup C_n, hence B_n \cup C_n is 
in F, hence for each n at least one of B_n, C_n is in F. So either there 
are infinitely many n such that B_n is in F, or infinitely many n such 
that C_n is in F. In the former case f is in I, in the latter g is in I.


Robert Sheskey



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