We study prime ideals in skew power series rings T:= R[[y; τ, δ]], for suitably conditioned complete right Noetherian rings R, automorphisms τ of R, and τ-derivations δ of R. Such rings were introduced by Venjakob, motivated by issues in noncommutative Iwasawa theory. Our main results concern "Cutting Down" and "Lying Over." In particular, assuming that τ extends to a compatible automorphsim of T, we prove: If I is an ideal of R, then there exists a τ-prime ideal P of T contracting to I if and

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... nly if I is a τ-δ-prime ideal of R. Consequently, under the more specialized assumption that δ = τ - id (a basic feature of the Iwasawa-theoretic context), we can conclude: If I is an ideal of R, then there exists a prime ideal P of T contracting to I if and only if I is a τ-prime ideal of R. Our approach depends essentially on two key ingredients: First, the algebras considered are Zariskian (in the sense of Li and Van Oystaeyen), and so the ideals are all topologically closed. Second, topological arguments can be used to apply previous results of Goodearl and the author on skew polynomial rings. © 2012 Hebrew University Magnes Press.