MATH 250B: COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA 19

7. Lecture 7 Localization
Suppose given a ring R and a subset S. We will construct a new ring such
that all the elements of S have inverses. This is easy: we just take the ring
R[t1 , t2 , ...]/(s1 t1 − 1, s2 t2 − s, . . .) where the si are the elements of S. This has
a sort of universal property: any homomorphism of R to s ring such that the im-
ages of S are invertible factors uniquely through R[S −1 ]. Moreover this universal
property uniquely characterizes it.
Basic example: Suppose R is the ring Z of integers. If we do not like the prime
2 we can kill it by inverting the multiplicative set of powers of 2 to get the ring
Z[1/2]. Its spectrum is the spectrum of Z with (2) removed. If we are really fond of
the prime 2 we can focus on it by inverting all odd numbers (those not in (2)). This
ring is denoted by Z(2) and its spectrum is obtained from Spec Z by deleting all
primes other than (2). The spectrums of these localizations are certain subspaces
of the spectrum of Z. Similar example with C[x] instead of Z and (x) instead of
(2).
These examples suggest that localization corresponds geometrically to deleting
part of the spectrum. (In fact this is where the word ”localization” comes from: in
Z(2) we are concentrating on the local part of Spec Z near (2), and so on.
The main problem in constructing a localization is the following: what is the
kernel of the natural map from R to R[S −1 ]? It is convenient to assume S is closed
under multiplication and contains 1.
If S has no zero divisors, then we can copy the construction of the rationals
from the integers: every element of RS −1 is of the form r/s and is zero if and only
if r = 0. So R is a subring of R/S. Checking that this is a ring is a long but
straightforward calculation: we define a set of equivalence classes, define the ring
operations, and check the ring axioms in the same way as for the construction of the
rationals. There is just one subtle point: in showing that the equivalence relation
a/b ≡ c/d is TRANSITIVE we need to use the fact that S has no zero divisors. In
fact if a/b = c/d and c/d = e/f then ad = bc and cf = de so af d = ced and as d is
not a zero divisor we can divide by d to see that a/b = e/f .
Example: If R is an integral domain and S is all non-zero elements of R the
localization is just the usual field of quotients. (”Quotient field” is ambiguous.) In
the case when R has no zero divisors the localization (for any S) is just a subring
of the field of quotients.
Example. If S is the set of all non-zero divisors of R then the localization is
called the total quotient ring of R. For example the total quotient ring of Z × Z is
Q × Q.
If S has zero divisors we need to be more careful: defining r1 /s1 to be r2 /s2 if
r1 s2 = r2 s1 is no longer an equivalence relation in general, so we cannot copy the
construction of Q from Z directly. Instead we define the ideal I of R to be the set
of elements killed by some element of S; this is closed under addition because S is
multiplicatively closed so is an ideal. Then the image of S in R/I is a multiplica-
tively closed subset with no zero divisors, so we can now form the quotient ring as
before. It is easy to check that this is a universal ring such that the images of all
elements of S are units, and we see that the kernel of the map from R to R[S −1
consists exactly of elements in I.
Every element of the ring R[S −1 ] can be written in the form rs−1 for some
s ∈ S, r ∈ R.
20 RICHARD BORCHERDS

We can combine the 2 steps above to get a 1-step construction of a localization.

This gives the following description (for S multiplicatively closed containing 1).
The elements of R[S −1 ] are given by expressions r/s, where r1 /s1 and r2 /s2 are
equal if and only if t(r1 s2 − r2 s1 ) = 0 for some t ∈ S. (Without this extra factor
of t this need not be an equivalence relation when the ring has zero divisors!)
Addition and multiplication of elements are given by the usual rules of high-school
algebra. (One can also check directly that this is an equivalence relation, addition
and multiplication are well defined on these equivalence classes, and the ring axioms
are satisfied, but this is somewhat tedious. Most books cheat by skipping the details
or leaving it as an exercise.)
Now we study the relation between ideals of R and R[S −1 ].
Lemma 7.1. The set ideals of RS −1 is naturally isomorphic to a subset of the
ideals of R.
Proof. If I is an ideal of RS−1 and x is any element, then x = r/s for some s, so r
is in the inverse image of I, so I is generated by the image of its inverse image. 
Corollary 7.2. If R is Noetherian then so is any localization RS −1 .
This does not follow from the Hilbert basis theorem because in general the lo-
calization is not finitely generated.
Proof. Since ideals of RS −1 just correspond to a subset of the ideals of R, they
satisfy the ascending chain condition. 
Corollary 7.3. The spectrum of RS −1 is homeomorphic to a subset of the spectrum
of R.
Proof. The inverse image of a prime ideal is prime, so we get a natural injection
from Spec RS−1 to Spec R. To check the topologies are the same, use the fact
that the topology has a basis of the open sets Z(r/s). 
Informally, the set Z(f ) can be thought of as the complement of the ”hyper-
surface” where f vanishes. (More precisely, the set of prime ideals not containing
f .). So we can picture the spectrum of RS −1 as the complement of some possibly
infinite family of hypersurfaces.
A particularly important example is Rp where p is a prime ideal, defined to
be RS −1 where S is the complement of P (multiplicative because P is prime).
Example: Localizations of Z or C[x] at the various primes were more or less done
above: there are two slightly different cases depending on whether the prime is
maximal or 0. The localization can be thought of roughly as functions that are
generically regular at the point P .
Example: Take R to be C[x, y]. We will draw the spectrums of the localizations.
• (0) the 2-dimensional point. The localization at the prime is the quotient
field. These can be though of as functions that are ”generically regular”.
The spectrum is just a point.
• (f ) for f an irreducible polynomial, corresponding to an irreducible curve.
The localization is all rational functions without f in the denominator, in
other words rational functions that are regular at most (but not necessarily
all) points of the curve. The spectrum has 2 points, one closed and one
open.
 MATH 250B: COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA 21

• (x − a, y − b), a closed point. The localization is all functions regular at the

point (a, b). The spectrum has one 2-dimensional point, one close point of
dimension 1, and a lot of 1-dimensional points that can be thought of as
the ghosts of curves through (a, b). In the case of Spec C[x] we can wither
localize at the prime (2) or at 1/2, which are in some sense complement of
the spectrum of Z. For Spec C[x, y] this does not work: the spectrum of the
complement of the spectrum of the localization at (x, y) is not the spectrum
of a ring. It is roughly the affine plane with the point (0, 0) removed, which
cannot be obtaibed by localizing at a point is not the union of codimension
1 hypersurfaces. (It is however the spectrum of a non-affine scheme.)
In all cases, the point P becomes the unique close point of the spectrum. This
corresponds to the fact that localization makes the prime P into the unique maximal
ideal.
Example. How many prime ideals does the localization of C[x, y]/(xy) at the
ideal (x, y) have? This is obvious geometrically: the spectrum of C[x, y]/(xy) is
two lines intersecting at 0, so the spectrum of the localization has 3 points, corre-
sponding to the 2 lines and their intersection point.
Note the difference between taking the spectrum of RP and the spectrum of
R/P . These are almost opposite operations: the first takes all pintos of Spec R
whose closure contains P , while the second is all points such that the closure of P
contains it. (Example: P = (f ) in C[x, y].)
We can also localize modules: if M is a module over a ring R and S a multiplica-
tive subset then we can define a module M S −1 over the ring RS −1 in a way similar
to the localization of a ring. All its elements are of the form m/s, and m/s is 0 if
and only if m is killed by some element of S. The really vital property of localizing
modules is that it preserves exactness: if L → M → N is an exact sequence of
modules over R, then LS −1 → M S −1 → N S −1 is also exact. The key point is to
show that if m/s has image 0 then it is in the image of LS −1 . But this follws easil
from the fact that if m/s has image 0 in N S −1 then mt has image 0 in M for some
t ∈ S. This result will soon be used to prove that the ring RS −1 is flat.