Avoidance and absorbance (Q2029241)

In this article, the authors investigate prime avoidance and prime absorbance by generalizing some classic results to radical ideals and infinite families of ideals in commutative rings with \(1 \neq 0\). We recall the prime avoidance lemma states that if an ideal is contained in a finite union of prime ideals, then it is already contained in one of them. The set-theoretic dual result, prime absorbance, if a finite intersection of ideals is contained in a prime ideal, then one of them is already contained in the prime. It is worth noting that both fail for infinite families. With this in mind, the authors prove several results about analogous notions involving radical ideals instead of prime ideals. The authors study compactly packed (C.P.) Rings where every set of primes has the avoidance property and rings in which every set of primes has the absorbance property, called properly zipped (or P.Z.) rings. The authors then provide several interesting characterizations of these rings and especially investigating the role chain conditions play. For example, it is shown that the only rings which are both C.P. and P.Z. rings are precisely the rings with finitely many prime ideals.