Valuation on integral domain

commutative-algebravaluation-theory

In order to prepare for a seminar I am currently studying valuation rings and I have stumbled upon the following statement:

Let $A\neq 0$ be a commutative, unitary ring and $\mathfrak{p}$ a prime ideal and $\vert\cdot\vert$ some valuation on $A/\mathfrak{p}$ (here is the error: it must be $\operatorname{Frac}(A/\mathfrak{p})$) Then the support $\{ x\in A/\mathfrak{p} : \vert x \vert =0\} =(0)$.

I have tried that the ring I'm investigating is integral, thus $ab\neq 0$ whenever $a,b\neq 0$, but this has not gotten me anywhere.

P.S. in this notation a valuation on $A$ is a multiplicative map $\vert\cdot\vert:A\to \Gamma\cup \{0\}$ where $\Gamma$ is a totally ordered, abelian group s.t. 0,1 map to 0,1 resp. and s.t. $\vert a+b\vert \le \max(\vert a\vert, \vert b\vert),\ \forall a,b\in A$.

Best Answer

The important point is that it's not assumed just that $|\cdot|$ is a valuation on $A/\mathfrak p$ but rather it's a valuation on $k(\mathfrak p)=\operatorname{Frac}(A/\mathfrak p)$. Valuations on fields automatically have $\operatorname{supp}(|\cdot|)=\{0\}$ (because the support is a prime ideal).

To see why the claim as originally stated can't be true, it's important to note that if $A$ is an integral domain you could take $\mathfrak p=(0)$ and then the claim would be that every valuation on an integral domain has zero support, for which you have simple counterexamples on, say, $A=\mathbb Z$.

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