Catenarity of formal power series rings over a pullback (Q1192249)

Let \((T,M,K)\) be a quasi local domain with maximal ideal \(M\) and residue class field \(K\). If \(\varphi\) is the natural surjection of \(T\) on \(K\), for any subring \(D\) of \(K\), \(\varphi^{-1}(D)=R\) is called the pull back. The main interest of the authors is in finding conditions for \(R[[X_ 1,\dots,X_ n]]\) catenarian. Theorem 2.6 shows that for the case \(n=1\), \(R[[X]]\) is catenarian if and only if both \(T[[X]]\) and \(D[[X]]\) are catenarian. Examples are given to show that the above fails when \(n>1\). For \(n>1\), some additional hypothesis is required. Thus if \(k\) is a subfield of \(K\), then the condition is \((*)\) ``the contraction map from \(\text{spec }K[[X_ 1,\dots,X_ n]]\) to \(\text{spec }k[[X_ 1,\dots,X_ n]]\) is a homeomorphism for each \(n>1\)''. If this is satisfied then \(R[[X,\dots,X]]\) is catenarian whenever \(T[[X_ 1,\dots,X_ n]]\) is catenarian and conversely. The condition \((*)\) is fulfilled whenever \(K\) is a purely inseparable extension of fields of characteristic \(p>0\) and is of finite exponent. In corollary 4.7 the authors show that conversely if \(k\) is a proper subfield of \(K\) such that \(k\subset K\), satisfies \((*)\), then \(K\) is purely inseparable. This is arrived from the theorem (4.6) which says that if \(\text{spec }K[[X_ 1,\dots,X_ n]]\to\text{spec }k[[X_ 1,\dots,X_ n]]\) is an injection for some integer \(n\geq 2\), then \(K\) is purely inseparable over \(k\).