Extending UFDs to PIDs without adding units (Q1622008)

The author answers the reviewer's question related to convex subsets of generalized affine spaces (see [\textit{G. Czédli} and \textit{A. B. Romanowska}, Int. J. Algebra Comput. 23, No. 8, 1805--1835 (2013; Zbl 1303.08004)]): can the PID \(P \subseteq \mathbb{R}\) be chosen so that its notion of convexity is non-trivial? (This means that \(P\) properly contains \(\mathbb{Z}\) and has only \(\pm 1\) as units.) The question is considered as a question of pure commutative ring theory, and is answered affirmatively. It is shown that for any UFD \(U\) there is a PID \(P\) containing \(U\) that has the same unit group as \(U\). The PID \(P\) can be chosen so that its field of fractions is a pure transcendental extension of the field of fractions of \(U\) with transcendence degree at most \(|U|\). The PID which gives an answer for the question above is constructed as an extension of the UFD \(\mathbb{Z}[\pi]\). Some additional observations concerning extensions of UFD's to PID's are also explained.