A corollary to Krull’s Principal Ideal Theorem

algebraic-geometrycommutative-algebramaximal-and-prime-idealsnoetherianunique-factorization-domains

(R. Hartshorne, Algebraic Geometry, p.7)

Proposition: A noetherian domain $A$ is a UFD iff every prime ideal of height 1 in $A$ is principal.

This proposition comes right after Krull's Principal Ideal Theorem. I tried to go ad absurdum for it, yet I'm still completely confused about this one.

Can anyone help me on the proof?

Thank you

Best Answer

Hints:

$"\Rightarrow"$: Suppose that $R$ is a UFD and let $P \subset R$ be a prime ideal of height $1$. Then $P \neq 0$ such that we can take a non-zero $x \in P$ and consider its factorization into irreducibles. Can you now maybe deduce that one of these irreducibles generates $P$?

$"\Leftarrow"$: Suppose that every prime ideal of height $1$ is principal. Since $R$ is noetherian, every non-zero non-unit element $x$ has a factorization into irreducibles. It actually suffices to prove that an irreducible element $x$ is prime (why?). Now consider a minimal prime over $(x)$. This has height $1$ then and thus is generated by some single element $y$. Can you show that $(x) = (y)$ (which implies that $x$ is prime then)?

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