Favourite applications of the Nakayama Lemma Inspired by a recent question on the nilradical of an absolutely flat ring, what are some of your favourite applications of the Nakayama Lemma? It would be good if you outlined a proof for the result too. I am also interested to see the Nakayama Lemma prove some facts in Algebraic Geometry if possible. Here are some facts which one can use the Nakayama lemma to prove.


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*A local ring that is absolutely flat is a field - proof given here.

*Every set of $n$  - generators for a free module of rank $n$ is a basis - proof given here.

*For any integral domain $R$ (that is not a field) with fraction field $F$, it is never the case that $F$ is a f.g. $R$ - module. Sketch proof: if $F$ is f.g. as a $R$ - module then certainly it is f.g. as a $R_{\mathfrak{m}}$ module for any maximal ideal $\mathfrak{m}$. Then $\mathfrak{m}_{\mathfrak{m}}F = F$ and so Nakayama's Lemma implies $F = 0$ which is ridiculous.


You might be interested in this.
It contains some applications of Nakayama's Lemma in Commutative Algebra and Algebraic Geometry.
