Localization of A Ring

Localization Of A Ring

In abstract algebra, localization is a systematic method of adding multiplicative inverses to a ring. Given a ring R and a subset S, one wants to construct some ring R* and ring homomorphism from R to R*, such that the image of S consists of units (invertible elements) in R*. Further one wants R* to be the 'best possible' or 'most general' way to do this – in the usual fashion this should be expressed by a universal property. The localization of R by S is usually denoted by S −1R; however other notations are used in some important special cases. If S is the set of the non zero elements of an integral domain, then the localization is the field of fractions and thus usually denoted Frac(R). If S is the complement of a prime ideal I the localization is denoted by R_I, and R_f is used to denote the localization by the powers of an element f. The two latter cases are fundamental in algebraic theory and scheme theory. In particular the definition of an affine scheme is based on the properties of these two kinds of localizations.

An important related process is completion: one often localizes a ring, then completes.