Distributive FCP extensions

Abstract

We are dealing with extensions of commutative rings $R\subseteq S$ whose chains of the poset $[R,S]$ of their subextensions are finite ({\em i.e.} $R\subseteq S$ has the FCP property) and such that $[R,S]$ is a distributive lattice, that we call distributive FCP extensions. Note that the lattice $[R,S]$ of a distributive FCP extension is finite. This paper is the continuation of our earlier papers where we studied catenarian and Boolean extensions. Actually, for an FCP extension, the following implications hold: Boolean $\Rightarrow$ distributive $\Rightarrow$ catenarian. A comprehensive characterization of distributive FCP extensions actually remains a challenge, essentially because the same problem for field extensions is not completely solved. Nevertheless, we are able to exhibit a lot of positive results for some classes of extensions. A main result is that an FCP extension $R\subseteq S$ is distributive if and only if $R\subseteq \overline{R}$ is distributive, where $\overline{R}$ is the integral closure of $R$ in $S$. A special attention is paid to distributive field extensions.