The distributive hull of a ring (Q917609)

We quote the author's words: ``Let \(R\) be a commutative ring with identity. An extension \(M\subseteq N\) of \(R\)-modules is said to be distributive if it satisfies the following condition: \(M\cap (X+Y)=(M\cap X)+(M\cap Y)\) for all submodules \(X, Y\) of \(N\). Davison has shown that every \(R\)-module \(M\) which is locally non-zero at every maximal ideal of \(R\) has a maximal distributive extension and he has raised the question: Is this unique up to \(M\)-isomorphism, in which case one can denote it by \(D(M)\) and call it the distributive hull of \(M\)? In this paper we answer the question in the affirmative in the case when \(M\) is the \(R\)-module \(R\), and we show that \(D(R)\) is a ring contained in the maximal quotient ring \(Q(R)\) of \(R\) such that for each maximal ideal \(P\) of \(R\) the set of \(R_P\)-submodules of \(D(R)_P\) containing \(R_P\) is linearly ordered. We then describe the distributive hull \(D(R)\) in certain cases. In particular, we show that the distributive hull of a noetherian integrally closed domain \(R\) is given by \(\{\cap_{P\in X}R_P \}\cap K\), where \(X\) is the set of all maximal ideals of \(R\) of height greater than one and \(K\) is the field of quotients of \(R\). If \(R\) is an artinian ring, then \(D(R)=R\). We also show that these results remain true when \(R\) is replaced by an ideal (restrictions may be imposed) of \(R\).''