Orderings and real places on commutative rings (Q1175760)

The author extends the notion and results of real places on fields to commutative rings. Namely, given a commutative ring \(R\) a real place on \(R\) is a pair \(\sigma=({\mathfrak p},\sigma)\), where \({\mathfrak p}\) is a prime ideal of \(R\) and \(\overline\sigma:\kappa({\mathfrak p})\to k\cup\infty\) is a \(k\)-place on the residue field of \({\mathfrak p}\). If \(k=\mathbb{R}\) the place is called real. The readers familiar with the notion of real spectra will surely have noticed the similarity of both constructions. Then the author considers the space \(M(R)\) of real places on \(R\) which is the collection of all the above pairs modulo some equivalence relation, and topologizes it with the quotient topology inherited by the canonical epimorphism \(\lambda:\text{Spec}_ r(R)\to M(R)\). This space \(M(R)\) was well known in case \(R\) is a field, and its properties extend naturally (and easily) to this more general situation, as well as other concepts as the one of holomorphy ring. So the results of the paper are essentially not new but the expected extensions of the known ones for fields, or in some cases reformulations in the language of real places of some known facts for the real spectrum, as theorem 4.3. -- - Also the author raises the question of the possible extension of some of the results to the case of \(k\)-places with \(k\neq\mathbb{R}\). Some work in this direction (always in the case of a field) was done by \textit{H.-W. Schülting} in Géométrie algébrique réelle et formes quadratiques, Journée SMF, Univ. Rennes 1981, Lect. Notes Math. 959, 433-442 (1982; Zbl 0498.14013), where he works with the relative holomorphy ring. Finally the paper finishes by applying the results to the particular case of rings with many units and answering in the affirmative a question of \textit{M. Knebusch}, namely whether the space \(M_ T\) of real places compatible with a given preorder \(T\) is Hausdorff.