On the heights of prime ideals under integral extensions (Q1096678)

Let R be a commutative unitary ring and let S be a unitary extension ring of R that is integral over R. For \(P\in Spec(R)\), denote by \(A_ S(P)\) the set of primes \(Q\in Spec(S)\) such that \(Q\cap R=P\); it is well known that ht(Q)\(\leq ht(P)\) for each \(Q\in A_ S(P)\), and equality holds for some Q if ht(P) is finite. Moreover, the going down theorem of Krull- Cohen-Seidenberg implies that \(ht(Q)=ht(P)\) for each \(Q\in A_ S(P)\) if the following conditions (a) and (b) are satisfied: \((a)\quad R\quad is\) an integrally closed domain, and \((b)\quad each\) nonzero element of R is regular in S. This paper considers the question of whether the conclusion that \(ht(Q)=ht(P)\) for each \(Q\in A_ S(P)\) may be retained, or only slightly modified, if hypothesis (a) or (b) is weakened. The following three results indicate that, basically, this question has a negative answer. Theorem 1.1. Let P be a prime ideal of height n in a ring R, where \(n\in Z_ 0\cup \{\infty \}\). Let \(n=m_ 1,...,m_ t\) be a list of t (not necessarily distinct) proposed heights between 0 and n. Then there exists a finite integral extension S of R with precisely t prime ideals \(Q_ 1,...,Q_ t\) lying over P, of heights \(m_ 1,m_ 2,...,m_ t\), respectively. Theorem 1.4. Let \(\{P_ 1,...,P_ k\}\) be a finite set of incomparable primes of a ring R. Suppose that for each i there exists \(a_ i\in P_ i\setminus (\cup _{j\neq i}P_ j)\) with \(ht(P_ i/(a_ i))\geq ht(P_ i)-1\). Then, given k finite lists \(L_ 1,...,L_ k\) of proposed heights such that, for each i, the proposed heights in \(L_ i\) do not exceed \(ht(P_ i)\) and include \(ht(P_ i)\) at least once, there exists a finite integral extension S of R such that, for each i, \(L_ i\) is the list of heights of the prime ideals of S which lie over \(P_ i.\) Theorem 2.5. Let L be a list of k positive integers \(n_ 1,n_ 2,...,n_ k\), and, for \(1\leq i\leq k\), let \(L_ i\) be a list of \(t_ i\) positive integers \(m_{i1},...,m_{it_ i}\) such that \(m_{i1}\leq...\leq m_{it_ i}=n_ i\). Then there exists an integral domain R with integral closure S such that \((1)\quad (R;P_ 1,...,P_ k)\) is semi-quasi-local with k maximal ideals \(P_ i\), where \(ht(P_ i)=n_ i\) for each i, \((2)S\quad is\) a finitely generated R-module, and \((3)\quad for\) \(1\leq i\leq k\), exactly \(t_ i\) maximal ideals of S lie over \(P_ i\) in R, and \(L_ i\) is the list of their heights.