Avoidance and Absorbance

We study the two dual notions of prime avoidance and prime absorbance. We generalize the classical prime avoidance lemma to radical ideals. A number of new criteria are provided for an abstract ring to be C.P. (every set of primes satisfies avoidance) or P.Z. (every set of primes satisfies absorbance). Special consideration is given to the interaction with chain conditions and Noetherian-like properties. It is shown that a ring is both C.P. and P.Z. iff it has finite spectrum.