Spectrum of A Ring - Functoriality

Functoriality

It is useful to use the language of category theory and observe that Spec is a functor. Every ring homomorphism f : R → S induces a continuous map Spec(f) : Spec(S) → Spec(R) (since the preimage of any prime ideal in S is a prime ideal in R). In this way, Spec can be seen as a contravariant functor from the category of commutative rings to the category of topological spaces. Moreover for every prime P the homomorphism f descends to homomorphisms

O_{f -1(P)} → O_P,

of local rings. Thus Spec even defines a contravariant functor from the category of commutative rings to the category of locally ringed spaces. In fact it is the universal such functor and this can be used to define the functor Spec up to natural isomorphism.

The functor Spec yields a contravariant equivalence between the category of commutative rings and the category of affine schemes; each of these categories is often thought of as the opposite category of the other.