Maximal ideal in the context of Quotient ring

⭐ Core Definition: Maximal ideal

In mathematics, more specifically in ring theory, a maximal ideal is an ideal that is maximal (with respect to set inclusion) amongst all proper ideals. In other words, I is a maximal ideal of a ring R if there are no other ideals contained between I and R.

Maximal ideals are important because the quotients of rings by maximal ideals are simple rings, and in the special case of unital commutative rings they are also fields. The set of maximal ideals of a unital commutative ring R, typically equipped with the Zariski topology, is known as the maximal spectrum of R and is variously denoted m-Spec R, Specm R, MaxSpec R, or Spm R.

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Maximal ideal in the context of Zorn's lemma

Zorn's lemma, also known as the Kuratowski–Zorn lemma, is a proposition of set theory. It states that a partially ordered set containing upper bounds for every chain (that is, every totally ordered subset) necessarily contains at least one maximal element.

The lemma was proven (assuming the axiom of choice) by Kazimierz Kuratowski in 1922 and independently by Max Zorn in 1935. It occurs in the proofs of several theorems of crucial importance, for instance the Hahn–Banach theorem in functional analysis, the theorem that every vector space has a basis, Tychonoff's theorem in topology stating that every product of compact spaces is compact, and the theorems in abstract algebra that in a ring with identity every proper ideal is contained in a maximal ideal and that every field has an algebraic closure.

View the full Wikipedia page for Zorn's lemma

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Maximal ideal in the context of Quotient ring

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⭐ Core Definition: Maximal ideal

Maximal ideal in the context of Zorn's lemma