Comparable overrings of a commutative ring (Q7002549)

An overring \(R_{0}\) of an integral domain \(R\) is comparable if \(R_{0}\neq R\), \(R_{0}\neq \text{qf} (R)\), and each overring of \(R\) is comparable to \(R_{0}\) under inclusion (where \(\text{qf}(R)\) denotes the quotient field of \(R\)). The authors generalize the concept of comparable overrings of an integral domain to the set of all commutative rings \(R\) such that \(\text{Nil} (R)\) is a divided prime ideal of \(R\). Let \(\mathcal H \) be the set of all commutative rings \(R\) such that \(\text{Nil} (R)\) is a divided prime ideal, and \(\mathcal H_{0}\) be the set of all rings \(R\in \mathcal H\) such that \(\text{Nil}(R) = \text{Z}(R)\), where \(\text{Z}(R)\) is the set of all zero divisors in \(R\). It is shown that if \(R\in \mathcal H_{0}\) and \(R_{0}\) is an overring of \(R\), then \(R_{0}\) is a comparable overring of \(R\) if and only if \(R_{0}/\text{Nil}(R)\) is comparable overring of \(R/\text{Nil(R)}\) (see Theorem 2.1).\N\NLet \(\overline{R}\) be the integral closure of \(R\), and \(R_{0}\) an overring of \(R\). If \(R_{0}\) is a comparable overring of \(R\), then either \(\overline{R}\subset R_{0}\) or \(R_{0}\subseteq \overline{R}\). In section 3, the authors focus their investigation on rings \(R\in \mathcal H\) satisfying \(\overline{R}\subset R_{0}\). In Proposition 3.2, examples of rings \(R\in\mathcal H_{0}\) with no comparable overring \(R_{0}\) such that \(\overline{R}\subset R_{0}\) are given. In Theorem 3.8, a necessary and suffisient condition is given for when a ring \(R\in \mathcal H_{0}\) has a comparable overring \(R_{0}\) such that \(\overline{R}\subset R_{0}\).\N\NIn section 4, the authors study the case of rings \(R\in \mathcal H\) satisfying \(R_{0}\subseteq \overline{ R}\). Recall that by Proposition 2.3, if \(R\in \mathcal H_{0}\) and \(R_{0}\) is a comparable overring of \(R\) such that \(R_{0}\subseteq \overline{R}\), then \(R\) is local. It is shown (in proposition 4.1) that in this case, \(R_{0}\) has at most two maximal ideals. This section focuses mostly on cases of local rings \((R, \mathfrak{m})\) in \(\mathcal H_{0}\).