In
abstract algebra,
localization is a systematic method of adding multiplicative inverses to a
ring. Given a ring
R and a subset
S, one wants to construct some ring
R* and
ring homomorphism from
R to
R*, such that the image of
S consists of
units (invertible elements) in
R*. Further one wants
R* to be the 'best possible' or 'most general' way to do this – in the usual fashion this should be expressed by a
universal property. The localization of
R by
S is usually denoted by
S -1R; however other notations are used in some important special cases. If
S is the set of the non zero elements of an
integral domain, then the localization is the
field of fractions and thus usually denoted Frac(
R). If
S is the
complement of a
prime ideal I the localization is denoted by
RI, and
Rf is used to denote the localization by the powers of an element
f. The two latter cases are fundamental in
algebraic geometry and
scheme theory. In particular the definition of an
affine scheme is based on the properties of these two kinds of localizations.