Topological aspects of irredundant intersections of ideals and valuation rings

Abstract: An intersection of sets $A = \bigcap_{i \in I}B_i$ is irredundant if no $B_i$ can be omitted from this intersection. We develop a topological approach to irredundance by introducing a notion of a spectral representation, a spectral space whose members are sets that intersect to a given set $A$ and whose topology encodes set membership. We define a notion of a minimal representation and show that for such representations, irredundance is a topological property. We apply this approach to intersections of valuation rings and ideals. In the former case we focus on Krull-like domains and Pr\"ufer $v$-multiplication domains, and in the latter on irreducible ideals in arithmetical rings. Some of our main applications are to those rings or ideals that can be represented with a Noetherian subspace of a spectral representation.