A local ring R is regular iff its Krull dimension equals its embedding
dimension; the definitional unfolding of regularity.
For a Noetherian local ring, regularity is equivalent to the inequality
embDim ≤ krullDim, combined with the general bound krullDim ≤ embDim.
Prop 30 (Lec, regularity): the Krull dimension of a Noetherian local ring is bounded above by its embedding dimension.
Symmetric reformulation: regular ⇔ embDim = krullDim.
The cotangent space m/m² of a Noetherian local ring is a finite-dimensional
vector space over the residue field.
The cotangent space vanishes iff R is a field, i.e. dim_k m/m² = 0.
dim_k m/m² ≤ 1 iff the maximal ideal is principal (a discrete valuation
ring or a field).
Smoothness at a prime is detected by smoothness on a Zariski-open
neighborhood; if R → A is smooth at p, there exists f ∉ p with A_f smooth.
Characterization of the smooth locus: complement of the support of H¹
of the cotangent intersected with the free locus of Ω[A/R].
An R-algebra A is formally smooth iff its smooth locus is all of Spec A.
A field is a regular local ring (trivial case of regularity).
Every discrete valuation ring is a regular local ring of dimension one.
The Krull dimension of the polynomial ring k[X_1, …, X_n] over a field is n.
Prop 30 applied to localizations of a polynomial ring at a prime: Krull dimension is bounded by embedding dimension.