Boolean Prime Ideal Theorem - Further Prime Ideal Theorems

Further Prime Ideal Theorems

The prototypical properties that were discussed for Boolean algebras in the above section can easily be modified to include more general lattices, such as distributive lattices or Heyting algebras. However, in these cases maximal ideals are different from prime ideals, and the relation between PITs and MITs is not obvious.

Indeed, it turns out that the MITs for distributive lattices and even for Heyting algebras are equivalent to the axiom of choice. On the other hand, it is known that the strong PIT for distributive lattices is equivalent to BPI (i.e. to the MIT and PIT for Boolean algebras). Hence this statement is strictly weaker than the axiom of choice. Furthermore, observe that Heyting algebras are not self dual, and thus using filters in place of ideals yields different theorems in this setting. Maybe surprisingly, the MIT for the duals of Heyting algebras is not stronger than BPI, which is in sharp contrast to the abovementioned MIT for Heyting algebras.

Finally, prime ideal theorems do also exist for other (not order-theoretical) abstract algebras. For example, the MIT for rings implies the axiom of choice. This situation requires to replace the order-theoretic term "filter" by other concepts—for rings a "multiplicatively closed subset" is appropriate.