Radical of an ideal

en.wikipedia.org

For other radicals, see radical of a ring.

In commutative ring theory, a branch of mathematics, the radical of an ideal I is an ideal such that an element x is
in the radical if some power of x is in I. A radical ideal (or semiprime ideal) is an ideal that is its own radical (this
can be phrased as being a xed point of an operation on ideals called 'radicalization'). The radical of a primary ideal
is prime.
Radical ideals dened here are generalized to noncommutative rings in the Semiprime ring article.

1 Denition

The radical of an ideal I in a commutative ring R, denoted by Rad(I) or I , is dened as

I = {r R | rn I for some positive integer n}.

Intuitively, one can think of the radical of I as obtained by taking all the possible roots of elements of I. Equivalently,

the radical of I is the pre-image of the ideal of nilpotent elements (called nilradical) in R/I . The latter shows I is
an ideal itself, containing I.[Note 1]

If the radical of I is nitely generated, then some power of I is contained in I.[1] In particular, If I and J are ideals
of a noetherian ring, then I and J have the same radical if and only if I contains some power of J and J contains some
power of I.
If an ideal I coincides with its own radical, then I is called a radical ideal or semiprime ideal.

2 Examples
Consider the quotient ring R = C[x, y]/(y 4 ) . Notice that any morphism R C must have y in the kernel in order
to have a well-dened morphism (if we said, for example, that the kernel should be (x, y 1) the composition of
C[x, y] R C would be (x, y 4 , y 1) which is the same as trying to force 1 = 0 ). Since C is algebraically
closed, every morphism R F must factor through C , so we only have the compute the intersection of {Ker() :
Hom(R, C)} to compute the radical of (0) . We then nd that (0) = (y) R .
Consider the ring Z of integers.

1. The radical of the ideal 4Z of integer multiples of 4 is 2Z.

2. The radical of 5Z is 5Z.

3. The radical of 12Z is 6Z.

4. In general, the radical of mZ is rZ, where r is the product of all distinct prime factors of m (each prime factor
of m occurs exactly once as a factor of the product r) (see radical of an integer). In fact, this generalizes to an
arbitrary ideal; see the properties section.

1
2 5 SEE ALSO

The radical of a primary ideal is prime. If the radical of an ideal I is maximal, then I is primary.[2]

If I is an ideal, I n = I . A prime ideal is a radical ideal. So P n = P for any prime ideal P.

Let I, J be ideals of a ring R. If I, J are comaximal, then I, J are comaximal.[3]
Let M be a nitely generated module over a noetherian ring R. Then

annR (M ) = psupp M p = pass M p [4]

where supp M is the support of M and ass M is the set of associated primes of M.

3 Properties
This section will continue the convention that I is an ideal of a commutative ring R:

It is always true that Rad(Rad(I))=Rad(I). Moreover, Rad(I) is the smallest radical ideal containing I.
Rad(I) is the intersection of all the prime ideals of R that contain I. Proof: On one hand, every prime ideal is
radical, and so this intersection contains Rad(I). Suppose r is an element of R which is not in Rad(I), and let
S be the set {rn |n is a nonnegative integer}. By the denition of Rad(I), S must be disjoint from I. S is also
multiplicatively closed. Thus, by a variant of Krulls theorem, there exists a prime ideal P that contains I and is
still disjoint from S. (see prime ideal.) Since P contains I, but not r, this shows that r is not in the intersection
of prime ideals containing I. This nishes the proof. The statement may be strengthened a bit: the radical of I
is the intersection of all prime ideals of R that are minimal among those containing I.
Specializing the last point, the nilradical (the set of all nilpotent elements) is equal to the intersection of all
prime ideals of R.
An ideal I in a ring R is radical if and only if the quotient ring R/I is reduced.
The radical of a homogeneous ideal is homogeneous.

4 Applications
The primary motivation in studying radicals is Hilberts Nullstellensatz in commutative algebra. One version of this
celebrated theorem states that for an algebraically closed eld k, and for any nitely generated polynomial ideal J in
the n indeterminates x1 , x2 , . . . , xn over the eld k, one has

I(V(J)) = J
where

V(J) = {x k n | f (x) = 0 for all f J}

and

I(S) = {f k[x1 , x2 , . . . xn ] | f (x) = 0 for all x S}.

Another way of putting it: The composition I(V()) = , on the set of ideals of a ring is in fact a closure operator.
From the denition of the radical, it is clear that taking the radical is an idempotent operation.

5 See also
Jacobson radical
Nilradical of a ring
 3

6 Notes
[1] A direct proof can be given as follows: Let a and b be in the radical of an ideal I. Then, for some positive integers m and
n, an and bm are in I. We will show that a + b is in the radical of I. Use the binomial theorem to expand (a+b)n+m1 (with
commutativity assumed):
( )
n+m1

n+m1
n + m 1 i n+m1i
(a + b) = ab .
i=0
i

For each i, exactly one of the following conditions will hold:

in
n + m 1 i m.

This says that in each expression ai bn+m 1 i , either the exponent of a will be large enough to make this power of a be in
I, or the exponent of b will be large enough to make this power of b be in I. Since the product of an element in I with an
element in R is in I (as I is an ideal), this product expression will be in I, and then (a+b)n+m1 is in I, therefore a+b is in the
radical of I. To nish checking that the radical is an ideal, we take an element a in the radical, with an in I and an arbitrary
element rR. Then, (ra)n = rn an is in I, so ra is in the radical. Thus the radical is an ideal.

7 Citations
[1] AtiyahMacDonald 1969, Proposition 7.14

[2] AtiyahMacDonald 1969, Proposition 4.2

[3] Proof: R = I + J = I + J implies I + J = R .

[4] Lang 2002, Ch X, Proposition 2.10

8 References
M. Atiyah, I.G. Macdonald, Introduction to Commutative Algebra, Addison-Wesley, 1994. ISBN 0-201-40751-
5
Eisenbud, David, Commutative Algebra with a View Toward Algebraic Geometry, Graduate Texts in Mathe-
matics, 150, Springer-Verlag, 1995, ISBN 0-387-94268-8.
Lang, Serge (2002), Algebra, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 211 (Revised third ed.), New York: Springer-
Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-95385-4, MR 1878556, Zbl 0984.00001
4 9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1 Text
Radical of an ideal Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_of_an_ideal?oldid=787656558 Contributors: AxelBoldt, Michael
Hardy, TakuyaMurata, Charles Matthews, Wik, Tea2min, Giftlite, Mousomer, Peruvianllama, Fpahl, GamerRemag12@aol.com, Zaslav,
Gauge, Remag12@yahoo.com, Keenan Pepper, Oleg Alexandrov, Linas, Joe Decker, R.e.b., Mathbot, Chobot, Light current, Deville,
KnightRider~enwiki, SmackBot, Foxjwill, Lhf, Rschwieb, 345Kai, Mcclurmc, Father Chaos, Thijs!bot, RobHar, SieBot, JackSchmidt,
DumZiBoT, Addbot, OlEnglish, Yobot, Ptbotgourou, IhorLviv, ZroBot, Quondum, Ferryck, PatrickR2, BG19bot, Teddyktchan, Saigono-
getsugatenshou, Srednuas Lenoroc, Magic links bot and Anonymous: 25

9.2 Images

9.3 Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0