Arithmetical rings and Krull dimension (Q1744356)

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the commutative arithmetical rings that have Krull dimension. The main theorem states that a commutative arithmetical ring \(A\) has Krull dimension if and only if every quotient ring of \(A\) is finite-dimensional (i.e. does not contain a direct sum of an infinite number of nontrivial submodules) and does not have any idempotent proper essential ideals. Sufficiency follows from a result by \textit{B. Lemonnier} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. A 275, 357--359 (1972; Zbl 0241.16017)] stating that if \(A\) is a commutative ring with Krull dimension, then \(A=A_{1} \times \ldots \times A_{n}\), where each \(A_{i}\) has Krull dimension and does not have idempotent proper nontrivial ideals. This implies that every quotient ring of \(A\) is finite dimensional and has no idempotent proper essential ideals. Necessity of the condition in the main theorem is proved by means of a series of 11 lemmas involving concepts such as distributive and uniform modules and completely prime and invariant rings.