We introduce a notion of embedding codimension of an arbitrary local ring, establish some general properties and study in detail the case of arc spaces of schemes of finite type over a field. Viewing the embedding codimension as a measure of singularities, our main result can be interpreted as saying that the singularities of the arc space are maximal at the arcs that are fully embedded in the singular locus of the underlying scheme, and progressively improve as we move away from said locus. As an application, we complement a theorem of Drinfeld, Grinberg and Kazhdan on formal neighbourhoods in arc spaces by providing a converse to their theorem, an optimal bound for the embedding codimension of the formal model appearing in the statement, a precise formula for the embedding dimension of the model constructed in Drinfeld’s proof and a geometric meaningful way of realising the decomposition stated in the theorem.

Let $A$ be a commutative noetherian ring, let $\mathfrak{a}\subseteq A$ be an ideal, and let $I$ be an injective $A$-module. A basic result in the structure theory of injective modules states that the $A$-module ${{\Gamma }_{\alpha }}\left( I \right)$ consisting of $\mathfrak{a}$-torsion elements is also an injective $A$-module. Recently, de Jong proved a dual result: If $F$ is a flat $A$-module, then the $\mathfrak{a}$-adic completion of $F$ is also a flat $A$-module. In this paper we generalize these facts to commutative noetherian $\text{DG}$-rings: let $A$ be a commutative non-positive $\text{DG}$-ring such that ${{\text{H}}^{0}}\left( A \right)$ is a noetherian ring and for each $i\,<\,0,\,\text{the}\,{{\text{H}}^{0}}\left( A \right)$-module ${{\text{H}}^{i}}\left( A \right)$ is finitely generated. Given an ideal $\overline{\mathfrak{a}}\,\subseteq \,{{\text{H}}^{0}}\left( A \right)$, we show that the local cohomology functor $\text{R}{{\Gamma }_{\overline{\mathfrak{a}}}}$ associated with $\overline{\mathfrak{a}}$ does not increase injective dimension. Dually, the derived $\overline{\mathfrak{a}}$-adic completion functor $\text{L}{{\Lambda }_{\overline{\mathfrak{a}}}}$ does not increase flat dimension.

Let $R\subset S$ be an extension of integral domains, with $R^{\ast }$ the integral closure of $R$ in $S$ . We study the set of intermediate rings between $R$ and $S$ . We establish several necessary and sufficient conditions for which every ring contained between $R$ and $S$ compares with $R^{\ast }$ under inclusion. This answers a key question that figured in the work of Gilmer and Heinzer [‘Intersections of quotient rings of an integral domain’, J. Math. Kyoto Univ.7 (1967), 133–150].

Let A be a local Noetherian domain of Krull dimension d. Heinzer, Rotthaus, and Sally have shown that if the generic formal fiber of A has dimension d – 1, then A is birationally dominated by a 1-dimensional analytically ramified local Noetherian ring having residue field finite over the residue field of A. We explore further this correspondence between prime ideals in the generic formal fiber and 1-dimensional analytically ramified local rings. Our main focus is on the case where the analytically ramified local rings are stable, and we show that in this case the embedding dimension of the stable ring reflects the embedding dimension of a prime ideal maximal in the generic formal fiber, thus providing a measure of how far the generic formal fiber deviates from regularity. A number of characterizations of analytically ramified local stable domains are also given.

A topology on $\mathbb{Z}$, which gives a nice proof that the set of prime integers is infinite, is characterised and examined. It is found to be homeomorphic to $\mathbb{Q}$, with a compact completion homeomorphic to the Cantor set. It has a natural place in a family of topologies on $\mathbb{Z}$, which includes the $p$-adics, and one in which the set of rational primes $\mathbb{P}$ is dense. Examples from number theory are given, including the primes and squares, Fermat numbers, Fibonacci numbers and $k$-free numbers.

Differentially simple local noetherian Q -algebras are shown to be always (a certain type of) subrings of formal power series rings. The result is established as an illustration of a general theory of differential filtrations and differential completions.