On simple ring extensions generated by two idempotents (Q1068164)

This paper is concerned with the problem of generating rings by idempotents. Let \(A=M_ n(D)\) be a simple Artinian ring (where D is a division ring). The first theorem states that if A is a separable algebra of finite rank over a field \(\Phi\) and \(a\in A-C\) where C is the centre of A and \(n\geq 2\), then A is generated over \(\Phi\) by a, e, f where e, f are idempotents. The second theorem extends this to the case where \(\Phi\) is replaced by a simple unital subring B of A such that A is Galois over B. Theorems 3, 4 examine when A can be generated over B by two idempotents while Theorem 5 considers the same question when the idempotents are replaced by elements which square to zero. The results generalize some of the results of the reviewer [Linear Algebra Appl. 37, 45-53 (1981; Zbl 0459.16010)] on generating algebras by two/three idempotents. The paper concludes with a nice example involving the Weyl algebra.