MULTIPLICATIVELY CLOSED SETS OF IDEALS AND RESIDUAL DIVISION

Let R be a ring (commutative with identity), let Γ be a multiplicatively closed set of finitely generated nonzero ideals of R, for an ideal I of R let I _Γ = ∪ {I : G; G ∈ Γ}, and for an R-algebra A such that GA ≠ (0) for all G ∈ Γ let A ^Γ = ∪ {A : _T GA; G ∈ Γ}, where T is the total quotient ring of A. Then I _Γ is an ideal in R, I → I _Γ is a semi-prime operation (on the set I of ideals I of R) that satisfies a cancellation law, and it is a prime operation on I if and only if R = R ^Γ. Also, A ^Γ is an R-algebra and A → A ^Γ is a closure operation on any set A = {A; A is an R-algebra, R ? A, and if C is a ring between R and A, then regular elements in C remain regular in A}. Finally, several results are proved concerning relations between the ideals I _Γ and (IA)_ΓA and between the R-algebras R ^Γ and A ^Γ.