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Consider the integral domain $A:=\mathbb Z \left [\sqrt {-3} \right]$ and its integral closure (in $\mathbb Q \left [\sqrt{-3} \right ]$) that is $\bar A=\mathbb Z \left [\frac{1+ \sqrt{-3}}{2} \right]$. I must find the fiber of the morphism $\operatorname {Spec} \bar A\to\operatorname {Spec} A$.

If I consider the morphism $$A\hookrightarrow \frac {A[x]}{2x-1-\sqrt{-3}},$$ for a prime $\mathfrak p\in \operatorname{Spec} A$ its preimage consists of the ideals generated (in $A[x]$) by $\mathfrak p$ and $f(x):=2x-1-\sqrt{-3}$, and eventually by other polynomials in $A[x]$ that are not congruent modulo an element of $A$ to a polynomial in $(f(x))$. Do these polynomials exist? Can I describe them better?

The sentence in italics should be justified with the fact that if a polynomial $g(x)$ is congruent to $f(x)$ modulo an element of $\mathfrak p$, it belongs already to $(f(x),\mathfrak p)$; while if $g(x)$ is congruent to $f(x)$ modulo an element of $A\setminus \mathfrak p$ then $(\mathfrak p ,f(x),g(x))=A[x]$.

EDIT: I thought of this solution that seems reasonable, where basically I used for every fiber that the prime ideals of $\frac{\mathbb Z \left [\sqrt{-3} \right ][x]}{2x-1-\sqrt{-3}}$ containing $(p)$ for a prime $p\in \mathbb Z \left [\sqrt{-3} \right ]$ are in bijection with the prime ideals of $\frac{\mathbb F_p[\sqrt{-3}][x]}{2x-1-\sqrt{-3}}$, except for the fiber over $(0)$ where I used the analogue argument but for localizations. I also used that in general $A[x]/(a_1x-a_2)\cong A$ if $a_1$ is invertible.

The fiber over $(0)$ is $\operatorname{Spec}\left(\mathbb Q \left [\sqrt{-3} \right ]\right)$; over $(2)$ is $\operatorname{Spec}\left(\mathbb F_2[x]\right)$, because $2x-1-\sqrt{-3}$ is the zero polynomial in $\mathbb F_2[x]$; over $(\sqrt{-3})$ is $\operatorname{Spec}\left(\mathbb F_3\right)$; for the other primes $(p)$ the fiber is $\operatorname{Spec}\left(\mathbb F_p \left [\sqrt{-3} \right ]\right)$. Two precisations: $\operatorname{Spec}\left(\mathbb F_2[x]\right)$ is just two points plus the generic point? And for the other fibers, since I'm always obtaining fields, the spectra is a point (so the map induces a bijection), regardless of $\mathbb F_p$ containing a square root of $-3$ or not, right?

HallaSurvivor
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Dr. Scotti
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  • Do you know what the conductor of an order in a number field is? Can you find it here? – Ahr Nov 23 '21 at 17:02
  • Actually we didn't see it in the course – Dr. Scotti Nov 23 '21 at 17:06
  • Maybe you can look at what happens to $X\to \overline{X}$ over the each point of $\text{Spec}(\mathbb{Z})$. In particular you should notice that away from $(2)$ this is an isomorphism. – Ahr Nov 23 '21 at 17:15
  • Now above $(2)$ show that the map is of the for $\mathbb{F}_4\to \mathbb{F}_2\oplus \mathbb{F}_2$ mapping $1$ to $(1, 1)$. – Ahr Nov 23 '21 at 17:22
  • Sorry I have been thinking for a while but I can't get your suggestion – Dr. Scotti Nov 23 '21 at 18:12
  • If you denote $S=\text{Spec}(\mathbb{Z})$, then your morphism $X\to \overline{X}$ is an $S$ morphism, to study it fibers you may study the fiber of $X_s\to \overline{X}s$ where $s$ is any point of $S$. If you take $s\neq (2)$ then $X_s\to \overline{X}_s$ is an isomorphism, and $X{(2)}\to \overline{X}_{(2)}$ is the map I defined in my previous message. – Ahr Nov 23 '21 at 18:25
  • Yes the idea is clear, I meant that I can't see why the situation is different for $(2)$ (it seemed an isomorphism to me) – Dr. Scotti Nov 23 '21 at 18:57
  • Well, there are several way to see it, but for instance using the description you gave of the map $A\to A[X]/ax+b$ if $a$ is invertible, it's clearly an isomorphism, but what if $a$ isnt'? Tensor with $\mathbb{F}_2$ and you can study that map over $(2)$. Maybe giving a description of $A\otimes \mathbb{F}_2$ would help (and is easy to find). – Ahr Nov 24 '21 at 09:16
  • @Ahr I made an edit to the post, with a solution that seems similar to yours (I don't understand well tensor products so I can't tell if they are the same). Could you tell me if it's ok ? Thank you very much – Dr. Scotti Nov 25 '21 at 09:11

2 Answers2

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I'm a bit confused by the argument that you made in your edit... I would dissuade you from trying to work with "nested" objects like $\mathbb{Z} \left [\sqrt{-3} \right ][x]$ unless absolutely necessary, because (at least for me) they're much trickier to reason about than classical polynomials. It sounds like you have the right general idea, but you might be a bit confused on the details. In particular it does matter what happens to $x^2 + 3$ mod $p$ for various $p$ when it comes to computing prime ideals. It only doesn't matter for this problem because we're interested in how the prime ideals in $A$ compare to those in $\overline{A}$.

To try to clear things up, I'll try to be fairly detailed in how you might attack this problem. Moreover, since you mention you aren't familiar with tensor products as a means of getting at the fibres, I'll include a more pedestrian approach. I can't help but try and explain why the tensor product "trick" works, though, so you'll have to forgive a quick digression.

With that out of the way, on with the show ^_^.


First, what are the (nonzero) primes in $A$? Well, if we write $A = \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{x^2 + 3}$, then we see the prime ideals in $A$ are exactly the prime ideals in $\mathbb{Z}[x]$ that contain $x^2 + 3$. We know that these look like $(p,f)$ where $f$ is irreducible mod $p$, and so we're looking for ideals $(p,f)$ where $f \mid x^2 + 3$ (mod $p$). Of course, we'll write this polynomial $f$ as $f(\sqrt{-3})$ instead of $f(x)$ (since $x = \sqrt{-3}$ in our ring).

For example, let's compute the primes that lie over $(2) \in \mathbb{Z}$. That is, the primes where $p = 2$.

We want to know that

$$ \frac{A}{\left (2,f \left (\sqrt{-3} \right) \right )} \cong \frac{\mathbb{Z}[x]}{(x^2+3,2,f)} \cong \frac{\mathbb{F}_2[x]}{(x^2 + 1, f)} $$

is a field. Of course, the only way to do this is to choose $f = x+1$, which gives us the prime $\left ( 2, \sqrt{-3}+1 \right)$.

Doing this for a few other primes, we can draw a quick picture of $\text{Spec}(A)$:

a picture of spec(A)

(If it's not clear why this is the spectrum, you should work these out in a way analogous to the example for $p=2$ above!)


Now, let's take a look at $\overline{A} = \frac{\mathbb{Z}[y]}{y^2 - y + 1}$. Again, elements of the spectrum will look like $(p,f)$ where $f$ is irreducible mod $p$, but now we want $f \mid y^2 - y + 1$ (mod $p$).

Again, let's look at the case $p=2$. Then we want

$$ \frac{\mathbb{Z}[y]}{(y^2 - y + 1, 2, f)} \cong \frac{\mathbb{F}_2[y]}{(y^2 + y + 1, f)} $$

to be a field. Of course, we know that $y^2 + y + 1$ is $\mathbb{F}_2$-irreducible, so $f = y^2 + y + 1$ is our only choice, and we see our prime ideal is just $(2)$ (notice we don't get $(2,f)$, because we already quotiented by $f$ in the passage from $\mathbb{Z}[y]$ to $\overline{A} = \frac{\mathbb{Z}[y]}{f}$!).

spec(Abar)

Notice the spectrum for $\overline{A}$ looks superficially similar to the spectrum of $A$ above every prime except $(2)$. We haven't worked out anything to do with the map $\text{Spec}(\overline{A}) \to \text{Spec}(A)$, but now we might have an intuitive plan for what we should look for algebraically!


Inspired by the geometry above, we're led to consider the primes above $(2)$ separately from the other primes. We can get at just the odd primes by localizing at the "function" $2$ (that is, by formally inverting $2$ by adjoining $\frac{1}{2}$).

So, we localize and the inclusion $A \to \overline{A}$ becomes the inclusion $A \left [ \frac{1}{2} \right ] \to \overline{A} \left [ \frac{1}{2} \right ]$.

Of course, if we expand this out, we see we're looking at the map $\mathbb{Z} \left [ \sqrt{-3}, \frac{1}{2} \right ] \to \mathbb{Z} \left [ \frac{1 + \sqrt{-3}}{2}, \frac{1}{2} \right ]$ which sends $\sqrt{-3} \mapsto \sqrt{-3} = 2 \frac{1 + \sqrt{-3}}{2} - 1$. This is easily seen to be an isomorphism, with inverse given by the map sending $\frac{1 + \sqrt{-3}}{2} \mapsto \frac{1 + \sqrt{-3}}{2} = \frac{1}{2} \left ( 1 + \sqrt{-3} \right )$.

In particular, since this is an isomorphism, it identifies the primes away from $(2)$.

All that's left is to consider what happens over $(2)$. Now, as has been mentioned a few times now, we could handle this case via fibre products. The idea here is that we can find the fibre over $\mathfrak{p}$ by considering the pullback (you should convince yourself of this):

a pullback

Of course, since the category of affine schemes is dual to the category of rings, we get a pushout of rings:

a pushout

This tells us that $f^{-1}(\mathfrak{p})$ should be $\text{Spec} \left (\overline{A} \otimes_A A/\mathfrak{p} \right )$, which is exactly what the comments and the other answer suggest.


It seems like you're looking for an approach that avoids this machinery, though, so let's see another way to do this.

The fibre over $\left ( 2, 1 + \sqrt{-3} \right )$ in $\text{Spec}(A)$ will be exactly the primes in $\text{Spec}(\overline{A})$ which pull back to $\left ( 2, 1 + \sqrt{-3} \right )$ under the natural embedding $A \hookrightarrow \overline{A}$. Of course, there's only one prime that does the job: $(2)$.

But notice

$$ \mathbb{F}_2 \cong \frac{A}{\left ( 2, 1 + \sqrt{-3} \right )} \hookrightarrow \frac{\overline{A}}{(2)} \cong \mathbb{F}_4 $$

is not an isomorphism!

So taking spectra, we find the fibre is $\text{Spec}(\mathbb{F}_4) \to \text{Spec}(\mathbb{F}_2)$, which is a bijection, but not an isomorphism.

At the end of the day, we see every fibre is a singleton, and we get an isomorphism of over every prime except $(2)$.


I hope this helps ^_^

HallaSurvivor
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  • Thank you for all your effort, I've just read your answer and surely I was supposed to do the exercise like that. I just don't understand a thing: how do you deduce that over $ (2)$ the induced map is not an isomorphism? Does it hold that $\operatorname {Spec} R\to \operatorname {Spec} S$ is an isomorphism only if $S\to R$ is an isomorphism in general? – Dr. Scotti Nov 25 '21 at 15:13
  • Also, since your point of view is practically the same of my course (in the second and fourth paragraph of your answer, not the third), could you suggest me a book or another source for other similar exercises? – Dr. Scotti Nov 25 '21 at 15:31
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    To your first comment, yes. $\text{Spec}$ gives an equivalence of categories $\mathsf{Ring}^\text{op} \equiv \text{AffSchm}$, and in particular it preserves and reflects isomorphisms. Notice that this is quite subtle! Even though the topological spaces for $\mathbb{F}2$ and $\mathbb{F}_4$ are the same (they're both one point) the _scheme structure is different! (They have different structure sheafs). – HallaSurvivor Nov 25 '21 at 23:16
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    To your second comment, unfortunately I don't know of a great reference for examples worked out like this... Eisenbud and Harris's The Geometry of Schemes has a great section on morphisms and fibres, which you might like, as well as an entire chapter on examples (with a subsection on arithmetic examples in particular), though they freely use tensor products to compute the fibre (as almost everyone does). – HallaSurvivor Nov 25 '21 at 23:18
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    As another example of needing to be careful, look at the fibre of $\text{Spec}(A) \to \text{Spec}(\mathbb{Z})$ over $(2)$. As a set, this has one point (which we identify with the prime $(2, 1 + \sqrt{-3})$), but as a scheme we find it's $\frac{\mathbb{F}_2[x]}{(x+1)^2}$, which has one (nonreduced) point, and is $2$ dimensional as a vector space over $\mathbb{F}_2$. So somehow the scheme structure of the fibre remembers more information than just the underlying set. – HallaSurvivor Nov 25 '21 at 23:25
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Consider the sequence of ring maps $\Bbb Z\to \Bbb Z[\sqrt{-3}] \to \Bbb Z[\frac{1+\sqrt{-3}}{2}]$. This gives a corresponding sequence of maps of spectra $\def\Spec{\operatorname{Spec}}\Spec \Bbb Z[\frac{1+\sqrt{-3}}{2}] \to \Spec \Bbb Z[\sqrt{-3}] \to \Spec \Bbb Z$. Over the open set $D(2)$ the first map of spectra is an isomorphism because it's the map $\Bbb Z[\sqrt{-3},\frac12]\to\Bbb Z[\frac{1+\sqrt{-3}}{2},\frac12]$ on rings. This means the only possible funny business is happening over the point $(2)\in\Spec \Bbb Z$.

The fiber of the map over $(2)$ is given by tensoring everything with $\Bbb Z/2$, so our sequence of ring maps is $\Bbb Z/(2)\to \Bbb Z[\sqrt{-3}]/(2) \to \Bbb Z[\frac{1+\sqrt{-3}}{2}]/(2)$. Rewriting the latter two as quotients of polynomial rings will make it easier to see what's going on: $\Bbb Z[\sqrt{-3}]=\Bbb Z[t]/(t^2+3)$, while $\Bbb Z[\frac{1+\sqrt{-3}}{2}]=\Bbb Z[u]/(u^2-u+1)$ where the map between the two is by sending $t\mapsto 2u-1$. Modding out by 2 everywhere, our map turns in to $\Bbb F_2[t]/(t^2+1) \to \Bbb F_2[u]/(u^2-u+1)$ by $t\mapsto -1$.

The spectra of both of these rings are just single points since they're artinian local rings, but they're non-isomorphic: the former has nilpotents, while the latter is a field. So the map on spectra coming from normalization is a non-isomorphic bijection over $(2)$ and an isomorphism everywhere else.

Hank Scorpio
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  • I don't understand well your answer, but from what we covered in the course I should use an argument similar to the one in my edit. I don't understand where I'm wrong in the edit: the fiber over $(2)$ aren't the prime ideals of $\mathbb Z[\sqrt {-3}][x]/2x-1-\sqrt{-3}$ that contain (2)? I.e. $\mathbb F_2 [x]/2x-1-\sqrt{-3}$? – Dr. Scotti Nov 25 '21 at 10:01
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    The tensor product is just packaging your argument in different language - it is exactly the sort of argument you're after. Secondly, your final sentence of that comment is just not right - you're making some wild errors because you're not converting things to a quotient of a polynomial ring by some ideal. For instance, you're quotienting by the ideal generated by $2x-1-\sqrt{-3}$: $2=0$, and what's $\sqrt{-3}$? If it's some element of $\Bbb F_2$, then you have either $\Bbb F_2$ or the zero ring, which is just wrong. – Hank Scorpio Nov 25 '21 at 19:46