Extensions of primes, flatness, and intersection flatness

Abstract: We study when $R \to S$ has the property that prime ideals of $R$ extend to prime ideals or the unit ideal of $S$, and the situation where this property continues to hold after adjoining the same indeterminates to both rings. We prove that if $R$ is reduced, every maximal ideal of $R$ contains only finitely many minimal primes of $R$, and prime ideals of $R[X_1,\dots,X_n]$ extend to prime ideals of $S[X_1,\dots,X_n]$ for all $n$, then $S$ is flat over $R$. We give a counterexample to flatness over a reduced quasilocal ring $R$ with infinitely many minimal primes by constructing a non-flat $R$-module $M$ such that $M = PM$ for every minimal prime $P$ of $R$. We study the notion of intersection flatness and use it to prove that in certain graded cases it suffices to examine just one closed fiber to prove the stable prime extension property.