Some remarks on Krull's conjecture regarding almost integral elements (Q4239727)

Let \(R\) be a ring with the total quotient ring \(S\). An element \(s\in S\) is almost integral (a.i.) over \(R\) if all powers of \(s\) belong to a finite \(R\)-submodule of \(S\). The set \(C(R)\) of all elements of \(S\) which are a.i. over \(R\) is a subring called the complete integral closure (c.i.c.) of \(R\). If \(R=C(R)\), by definition \(R\) is called completely integrally closed (C.I.C). The author defines the \(\sigma\)-th c.i.c. \(C^\sigma(D)\) of a domain \(D\), where \(\sigma\) is an ordinal number, as follows: \(C^0(D)=D\), \(C^{\sigma+1} (D) =C(C^\sigma(D))\), if \(\sigma=\lim\tau\), then \(C^\sigma(D)=\bigcup C^\tau(D)\). He proves the theorem: For any domain \(D\) the \(\omega_1\)-th c.i.c. \(C^{\omega_1} (D)\) is c.i.c., where \(\omega_1\) is the first uncountable ordinal. Further the author exposes ``some positive results on Krull's conjecture'', among others this one: Let \(\overline R\) be the integral closure of \(R\). If \(R\neq \overline R\) then \(C(R)\neq C(\overline R)\). [For Krull's conjecture see: \textit{W. Krull}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 167, 160-196 (1932; Zbl 0004.09802) and \textit{T. Nakayama}, Proc. Imp. Acad. Tokyo 18, 185-187; 233-236 (1942)].