On maximal subalgebras (Q5920044)

All rings in this article are commutative and have a unity. A minimal ring extension is a non-trivial ring extension that does not allow a proper intermediate ring. The paper builds on results of \textit{D. Ferrand} and \textit{J. P. Olivier} [J. Algebra 16, 461--471 (1970; Zbl 0218.13011)]. The authors' guiding problem is to classify all maximal subalgebras of a given affine \(\mathbf k\)-domain where \(\mathbf k\) is an algebraically closed field.In case \(\mathbf k\) is an algebraically closed field, all extending maximal \(\mathbf k\)-subalgebras of a given one-dimensional affine \(\mathbf k\)-domain \(R\) are classified. The authors use techniques of birational geometry of surfaces and the classification of extending maximal subalgebras of one-dimensional affine \(\mathbf k\)-domains to construct a number of examples which show that not all extending maximal \(\mathbf k\)-subalgebras of \(\mathbf k [t, y]\) contain a coordinate. These examples indicate that it is difficult to classify all maximal subalgebras of \(\mathbf k [t, y]\). The central section of the paper classifies all maximal subrings of \(\mathbf k [t, t^{-1}, y]\) that contain \(\mathbf k [t, y]\). Section 6 of the paper reduces classification of all maximal \(\mathbf k\)-subalgebras of \(\mathbf k [t, t^{-1}, y]\) to another classification result, which is solved in the last section by way of classification of the maximal \(\mathbf k\)-subalgebras of \(\mathbf k [t, y]\) that contain \(\mathbf k [t]\).