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A radical ideal in a Noetherian ring is the intersection of its minimal primes
Statement
Assume Dependent Choice.
Let be a Noetherian commutative ring and let be a radical ideal. Then there exist finitely many prime ideals minimal over such that When , this is the empty intersection.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: Dependent Choice, a Noetherian commutative ring , and a radical ideal .
Assuming Dependent Choice, every ideal of a Noetherian ring has a minimal primary decomposition (Every submodule of a finite module over a Noetherian ring has a minimal primary decomposition).
The radical of a primary ideal is prime (The radical of a primary ideal is prime).
The radical of an intersection of ideals is the intersection of their radicals (The radical of a finite intersection).
Proof
If , then no prime ideal contains , and the empty intersection is . This is exactly the stated boundary case.
Assume . By [L1], choose a minimal primary decomposition Since the empty intersection is , one has . For each , put . Fact [L2] makes every prime. Since is radical, by [L3].
Let be the set of inclusion-minimal members among the finite family . If one prime in the family contains another, removing the larger one does not change the intersection, so the intersection over is still . The product lies in . Thus every prime containing contains that product, and primality forces for some . If is minimal over , then , so belongs to . Conversely, if and a prime satisfies , the same product argument gives for some . Inclusion-minimality in the finite family forces , hence . Therefore the members of are exactly the minimal primes over .
Steps 1.1, 1.2, and 2.1 prove that a radical ideal is the finite intersection of its minimal primes.