Catenarity and Gelfand-Kirillov dimension in Ore extensions (Q1263644)

A ring R is said to be catenary if whenever \(P\subseteq Q\) are prime ideals of R then any saturated chain of prime ideals from P to Q has the same length. Finitely generated commutative algebras are the best known examples of catenary rings. An aid to proving catenarity is a height formula of the type \(\dim (R)=\dim (R/P)+height(P)\), for an appropriate dimension - e.g. Krull dimension in the commutative case. In this paper the authors consider the question of catenarity for Ore extensions of commutative rings. They establish both positive and negative results and obtain height formulae using Gelfand-Kirillov dimension. In the negative direction they produce a derivation \(\delta\) on \(A={\mathbb{Q}}[x,y]\) such that the Ore extension \(R=A[\theta;\delta]\) is not catenary. In this example there is an element \(a\in A\) such that the smallest \(\delta\)- invariant subspace containing a is infinite dimensional. Excluding this problem leads to a positive result: if A is affine over a field k of characteristic zero and \(\delta\) is a locally finite dimensional k- derivation then \(R=A[\theta;\delta]\) is catenary. [For related results, see the paper by \textit{K. A. Brown}, \textit{K. R. Goodearl} and the reviewer, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 317, 749-772 (1990; Zbl 0692.16002).]