On the Prime Ideals in a Commutative Ring (Q4522140)

The relationship between the cardinality of a commutative ring \(R\) with identity and the number of prime ideals of \(R\) is studied in this note. Let \(m, n\) be positive integers, \(m \geq 2\) and suppose \(s\) is the number of different primes occurring in the prime factorization of \(n\) and \(q\) is the total number of factors in this factorization. The main result for rings of finite cardinality states that there exists a ring \(R\) of cardinality \(n\) having \(m\) prime ideals if and only if \(s \leq m \leq q.\) The situation for infinite rings is quite different. If \(R\) is a ring and \(T\) is a ring which is generated as \(R\)-algebra by a set \(I\), then it is proved that each chain of prime ideals in \(T\) which lie over the same prime ideal of \(R\) has at most \(2^{\mid I \mid}\) elements. This proof is done on the assumption of the continuum hypothesis. It is also shown that the upper bound given is best-possible.