Principal ideal domain

In mathematics, a principal ideal domain, or PID, is an integral domain (that is, a commutative ring without nonzero zero divisors) in which every ideal is principal (that is, is formed by the multiples of a single element). Some authors such as Bourbaki refer to PIDs as principal rings.

Principal ideal domains are mathematical objects that behave like the integers, with respect to divisibility: any element of a PID has a unique factorization into prime elements (so an analogue of the fundamental theorem of arithmetic holds); any two elements of a PID have a greatest common divisor (although it may not be possible to find it using the Euclidean algorithm). If x and y are elements of a PID without common divisors, then every element of the PID can be written in the form ax + by, etc.

Principal ideal domains are Noetherian, they are integrally closed, they are unique factorization domains and Dedekind domains. All Euclidean domains and all fields are principal ideal domains.

Principal ideal domains appear in the following chain of class inclusions:

rngs ⊃ rings ⊃ commutative rings ⊃ integral domains ⊃ integrally closed domains ⊃ GCD domains ⊃ unique factorization domains ⊃ principal ideal domains ⊃ Euclidean domains ⊃ fields ⊃ algebraically closed fields