Morphic rings and unit regular rings

A ring R is called left morphic if for every a∈R. A left and right morphic ring is called a morphic ring. If M_n(R) is morphic for all n≥1 then R is called a strongly morphic ring. A well-known result of Erlich says that a ring R is unit regular iff it is both (von Neumann) regular and left morphic. A new connection between morphic rings and unit regular rings is proved here: a ring R is unit regular iff R[x]/(xⁿ) is strongly morphic for all n≥1 iff R[x]/(x²) is morphic. Various new families of left morphic or strongly morphic rings are constructed as extensions of unit regular rings and of principal ideal domains. This places some known examples in a broader context and answers some existing questions.     

Differential commutator identities

I.N. Herstein proved that if R is a prime ring satisfying a differential identity , with d a nonzero derivation of R, then R embeds isomorphically in M₂(F) for F a field. We consider a natural generalization of this result for the class of polynomials E_n(X)=[E_n-1(x₁,…,x_n-1),x_n]. Using matrix computations, we prove that if R satisfies a differential identity , or with some restrictions, then R must embed in M₂(F), but that differential identities using [[E_n,E_m],E_s] with m,n,s>1 need not force R to embed in M₂(F). These results hold if the expressions are identities for a noncommutative Lie ideal of R, rather than for R itself.     

Automorphism groups of generalized triangular matrix rings

We call a ring strongly indecomposable if it cannot be represented as a non-trivial (i.e. M≠0) generalized triangular matrix ring , for some rings R and S and some R-S-bimodule _RM_S. Examples of such rings include rings with only the trivial idempotents 0 and 1, as well as endomorphism rings of vector spaces, or more generally, semiprime indecomposable rings. We show that if R and S are strongly indecomposable rings, then the triangulation of the non-trivial generalized triangular matrix ring is unique up to isomorphism; to be more precise, if is an isomorphism, then there are isomorphisms ρ:R→R^′ and ψ:S→S^′ such that χ:=φ_∣M:M→M^′ is an R-S-bimodule isomorphism relative to ρ and ψ. In particular, this result describes the automorphism groups of such upper triangular matrix rings      

Strong lifting splits

The concept of an enabling ideal is introduced so that an ideal I is strongly lifting if and only if it is lifting and enabling. These ideals are studied and their properties are described. It is shown that a left duo ring is an exchange ring if and only if every ideal is enabling, that Zhou’s δ-ideal is always enabling, and that the right singular ideal is enabling if and only if it is contained in the Jacobson radical. The notion of a weakly enabling left ideal is defined, and it is shown that a ring is an exchange ring if and only if every left ideal is weakly enabling. Two related conditions, interesting in themselves, are investigated: the first gives a new characterization of δ-small left ideals, and the second characterizes weakly enabling left ideals. As an application (which motivated the paper), let M be an I-semiregular left module where I is an enabling ideal. It is shown that m∈M is I-semiregular if and only if m−q∈IM for some regular element q of M and, as a consequence, that if M is countably generated and IM is δ-small in M, then where for each i.     

The symmetry of the CS condition on one-sided ideals in a prime ring

Let R be a prime ring and e∈R be an idempotent. We show that eR_R is nonsingular, CS and if and only if is nonsingular, CS and .     

Relative copure injective and copure flat modules

Let R be a ring, n a fixed nonnegative integer and I_n (F_n) the class of all left (right) R-modules of injective (flat) dimension at most n. A left R-module M (resp., right R-module F) is called n-copure injective (resp., n-copure flat) if (resp., ) for any N∈I_n. It is shown that a left R-module M over any ring R is n-copure injective if and only if M is a kernel of an I_n-precover f:A→B of a left R-module B with A injective. For a left coherent ring R, it is proven that every right R-module has an F_n-preenvelope, and a finitely presented right R-module M is n-copure flat if and only if M is a cokernel of an F_n-preenvelope K→F of a right R-module K with F flat. These classes of modules are also used to construct cotorsion theories and to characterize the global dimension of a ring under suitable conditions.     

The minimal prime spectrum of rings with annihilator conditions

In this paper, we study rings with the annihilator condition (a.c.) and rings whose space of minimal prime ideals, , is compact. We begin by extending the definition of (a.c.) to noncommutative rings. We then show that several extensions over semiprime rings have (a.c.). Moreover, we investigate the annihilator condition under the formation of matrix rings and classical quotient rings. Finally, we prove that if R is a reduced ring then: the classical right quotient ring Q(R) is strongly regular if and only if R has a Property (A) and is compact, if and only if R has (a.c.) and is compact. This extends several results about commutative rings with (a.c.) to the noncommutative setting.     

Sigma-cotorsion rings

It is proved that a ring R is right perfect if and only if it is Σ-cotorsion as a right module over itself. Several other conditions are shown to be equivalent. For example, that every pure submodule of a free right R-module is strongly pure-essential in a direct summand, or that the countable direct sum of the cotorsion envelope of R_R is cotorsion.If C_R is a flat Σ-cotorsion module, then C_R admits a decomposition into a direct sum of indecomposable modules with a local endomorphism ring. The Jacobson radical J(S) of the endomorphism ring S=End_RC is characterized as the maximum ideal that acts locally T-nilpotently on C_R. If R is semilocal and C=C(R), then the radical consists of those endomorphisms whose image is contained in CJ.     

The phantom cover of a module

A morphism of left R-modules is a phantom morphism if for any morphism , with A finitely presented, the composition fg factors through a projective module. Equivalently, Tor₁(X,f)=0 for every right R-module X. It is proved that every R-module possesses a phantom cover, whose kernel is pure injective.If is the category of finitely presented right R-modules modulo projectives, then the association M?Tor₁(−,M) is a functor from the category of left R-modules to that of the flat functors on . The phantom cover is used to characterize when this functor is faithful or full. It is faithful if and only if the flat cover of every module has a pure injective kernel; this is equivalent to the flat cover being the phantom cover. The question of fullness is only reasonable when the functor is restricted to the subcategory of cotorsion modules. This restriction is full if and only if every phantom cover of a cotorsion module is pure injective.     

Almost fully decomposable infinite rank lattices over orders

Let Λ be an order over a Dedekind domain R with quotient field K. An object of , the category of R-projective Λ-modules, is said to be fully decomposable if it admits a decomposition into (finitely generated) Λ-lattices. In a previous article [W. Rump, Large lattices over orders, Proc. London Math. Soc. 91 (2005) 105-128], we give a necessary and sufficient criterion for R-orders Λ in a separable K algebra A with the property that every is fully decomposable. In the present paper, we assume that is separable, but that the p-adic completion A_p is not semisimple for at least one . We show that there exists an , such that KL admits a decomposition KL=M₀⊕M₁ with finitely generated, where L∩M₁ is fully decomposable, but L itself is not fully decomposable.     

On cohomology rings of infinite groups

Let R be any ring (with 1), G a torsion free group and RG the corresponding group ring. Let be the cohomology ring associated with the RG-module M. Let H be a subgroup of finite index of G. The following is a special version of our main Theorem: Assume the profinite completion of G is torsion free. Then an element is nilpotent (under Yoneda’s product) if and only if its restriction to is nilpotent. In particular this holds for the Thompson group.There are torsion free groups for which the analogous statement is false.     

Local cohomology modules with respect to an ideal containing the irrelevant ideal

Let R=?_n≥0R_n be a homogeneous Noetherian ring, let M be a finitely generated graded R-module and let R₊=?_n>0R_n. Let b?b₀+R₊, where b₀ is an ideal of R₀. In this paper, we first study the finiteness and vanishing of the n-th graded component of the i-th local cohomology module of M with respect to b. Then, among other things, we show that the set becomes ultimately constant, as n→−∞, in the following cases:

(i)

and (R₀,m₀) is a local ring;

(ii)

dim(R₀)≤1 and R₀ is either a finite integral extension of a domain or essentially of finite type over a field;

(iii)

i≤g_b(M), where g_b(M) denotes the cohomological finite length dimension of M with respect to b.

Also, we establish some results about the Artinian property of certain submodules and quotient modules of .     

Modules whose hereditary pretorsion classes are closed under products

A module M is called product closed if every hereditary pretorsion class in σ[M] is closed under products in σ[M]. Every module M which is locally of finite length (every finitely generated submodule of M has finite length) is product closed and every product closed module M is semilocal (M/J(M) is semisimple). Let be product closed and projective in σ[M]. It is shown that (1) M is semiartinian; (2) if M is finitely generated then M satisfies the DCC on fully invariant submodules; (3) M has finite length if M is finitely generated and every hereditary pretorsion class in σ[M] is M-dominated. If the ring R is commutative it is proven that M is product closed if and only if M is locally of finite length.     

Mesh geometries of root orbits of integral quadratic forms

Integral quadratic forms q:Zⁿ→Z, with n≥1, and the sets R_q(d)={v∈Zⁿ;q(v)=d}, with d∈Z, of their integral roots are studied by means of mesh translation quivers defined by Z-bilinear morsifications b_A:Zⁿ×Zⁿ→Z of q, with Z-regular matrices A∈M_n(Z). Mesh geometries of roots of positive definite quadratic forms q:Zⁿ→Z are studied in connection with root mesh quivers of forms associated to Dynkin diagrams A_n,D_n,E₆,E₇,E₈ and the Auslander-Reiten quivers of the derived category D^b(R) of path algebras R=KQ of Dynkin quivers Q. We introduce the concepts of a Z-morsification b_A of a quadratic form q, a weighted Φ_A-mesh of vectors in Zⁿ, and a weighted Φ_A-mesh orbit translation quiver Γ(R_q,Φ_A) of vectors in Zⁿ, where R_q?R_q(1) and Φ_A:Zⁿ→Zⁿ is the Coxeter isomorphism defined by A. The existence of mesh geometries on R_q is discussed. It is shown that, under some assumptions on the morsification b_A:Zⁿ×Zⁿ→Z, the set admit a Φ_A-orbit mesh quiver , where Φ_A:Zⁿ→Zⁿ is the Coxeter isomorphism defined by A. Moreover, splits into three infinite connected components , , and , where are isomorphic to a translation quiver Z⋅Δ, with Δ an extended Dynkin quiver, and has the shape of a sand-glass tube.     

Idempotent elements determined matrix algebras

Let M_n(R) be the algebra of all n×n matrices over a unital commutative ring R with 2 invertible, V be an R-module. It is shown in this article that, if a symmetric bilinear map {·,·} from M_n(R)×M_n(R) to V satisfies the condition that {u,u}={e,u} whenever u²=u, then there exists a linear map f from M_n(R) to V such that . Applying the main result we prove that an invertible linear transformation θ on M_n(R) preserves idempotent matrices if and only if it is a Jordan automorphism, and a linear transformation δ on M_n(R) is a Jordan derivation if and only if it is Jordan derivable at all idempotent points.     

A new variational characterization of the Wulff shape

Given a positive function F on Sn which satisfies a convexity condition, we define the rth anisotropic mean curvature function Mr for hypersurfaces in Rn+1 which is a generalization of the usual rth mean curvature function. Let be an n-dimensional closed hypersurface with , for some r with 1?r?n−1, which is a critical point for a variational problem. We show that X(M) is stable if and only if X(M) is the Wulff shape.     

Embeddings of homology equivalent manifolds with boundary

We prove a theorem on equivariant maps implying the following two corollaries:(1) Let N and M be compact orientable n-manifolds with boundaries such that M⊂N, the inclusion M→N induces an isomorphism in integral cohomology, both M and N have (n−d−1)-dimensional spines and . Then the restriction-induced map Embm(N)→Embm(M) is bijective. Here Embm(X) is the set of embeddings X→Rm up to isotopy (in the PL or smooth category).(2) For a 3-manifold N with boundary whose integral homology groups are trivial and such that N?D³ (or for its special 2-spine N) there exists an equivariant map , although N does not embed into R³.The second corollary completes the answer to the following question: for which pairs (m,n) for each n-polyhedron N the existence of an equivariant map implies embeddability of N into Rm? An answer was known for each pair (m,n) except (3,3) and (3,2).     

Direct summands of direct sums of modules whose endomorphism rings have two maximal right ideals

Let M₁,…,M_n be right modules over a ring R. Suppose that the endomorphism ring of each module M_i has at most two maximal right ideals. Is it true that every direct summand of M₁⊕?⊕M_n is a direct sum of modules whose endomorphism rings also have at most two maximal right ideals? We show that the answer is negative in general, but affirmative under further hypotheses. The endomorphism ring of uniserial modules, that is, the modules whose lattice of submodules is linearly ordered under inclusion, always has at most two maximal right ideals, and Pavel P?íhoda showed in 2004 that the answer to our question is affirmative for direct sums of finitely many uniserial modules.