SIMPLE VALUATION IDEALS OF ORDER TWO IN 2-DIMENSIONAL REGULAR LOCAL RINGS

Let (R, m) be a 2-dimensional regular local ring with algebraically closed residue field R/m. Let K be the quotient field of R and v be a prime divisor of R, i.e., a valuation of K which is birationally dominating R and residually transcendental over R. Zariski showed that there are finitely many simple v-ideals $m=P_0\;{\supset}\;P_1\;{\supset}\;{\cdotS}\;{\supset}\;P_t=P$ and all the other v-ideals are uniquely factored into a product of those simple ones. It then was also shown by Lipman that the predecessor of the smallest simple v-ideal P is either simple (P is free) or the product of two simple v-ideals (P is satellite), that the sequence of v-ideals between the maximal ideal and the smallest simple v-ideal P is saturated, and that the v-value of the maximal ideal is the m-adic order of P. Let m = (x, y) and denote the v-value difference |v(x) - v(y)| by $n_v$. In this paper, if the m-adic order of P is 2, we show that $O(P_i)\;=\;1\;for\;1\;{\leq}\;i\; {\leq}\;{\lceil}\;{\frac{b+1}{2}}{\rceil}\;and\;O(P_i)\;=2\;for\;{\lceil}\;\frac{b+3}{2}\rceil\;{\leq}\;i\;\leq\;t,\;where\;b=n_v$. We also show that $n_w\;=\;n_v$ when w is the prime divisor associated to a simple v-ideal $Q\;{\supset}\;P$ of order 2 and that w(R) = v(R) as well.