On the geometry of Pr\"ufer intersections of valuation rings

Abstract

Let $F$ be a field, let $D$ be a subring of $F$ and let $Z$ be an irreducible subspace of the space of all valuation rings between $D$ and $F$ that have quotient field $F$. Then $Z$ is a locally ringed space whose ring of global sections is $A = \bigcap_{V \in Z}V$. All rings between $D$ and $F$ that are integrally closed in $F$ arise in such a way. Motivated by applications in areas such as multiplicative ideal theory and real algebraic geometry, a number of authors have formulated criteria for when $A$ is a Pr\"ufer domain. We give geometric criteria for when $A$ is a Pr\"ufer domain that reduce this issue to questions of prime avoidance. These criteria, which unify and extend a variety of different results in the literature, are framed in terms of morphisms of $Z$ into the projective line ${\mathbb{P}}^1_D$