On prime ideals and radicals of polynomial rings and graded rings

We extend some known results on radicals and prime ideals from polynomial rings and Laurent polynomial rings to Z$\mathbb{Z}$-graded rings, i.e, rings graded by the additive group of integers. The main of them concerns the Brown–McCoy radical G$G$ and the radical S$S$, which for a given ring A$A$ is defined as the intersection of prime ideals I$I$ of A$A$ such that A/I$A/I$ is a ring with a large center. The studies are related to some open problems on the radicals G$G$ and S$S$ of polynomial rings and situated in the context of Koethe’s problem.     

Which finite simple groups are unit groups?

We prove that if G$G$ is a finite simple group which is the unit group of a ring, then G$G$ is isomorphic to: (a) a cyclic group of order 2; or (b) a cyclic group of prime order 2^k−1$2^k-1$ for some k$k$; or (c) a projective special linear group _PSLn(_F2)${PSL}_n\left({\mathbb{F}}_2\right)$ for some n≥3$n\ge 3$. Moreover, these groups do all occur as unit groups. We deduce this classification from a more general result, which holds for groups G$G$ with no non-trivial normal 2-subgroup.