Associated series and regular elements of Noetherian rings (Q1090394)

A chain of submodules \(0=M_ 0\subset M_ 1\subset...\subset M_ n=M\) of a right R-module M is an associated series if each \(M_ i\) is the annihilator of some ideal of R and each factor \(M_ i/M_{i-1}\) is a prime module (i.e. all non-zero submodules have the same annihilator). An important example is that of a saturated chain of (left) annihilator ideals in the ring R, this is a full associated series. One result proved here is that in a noetherian ring R every prime ideal that is minimal over an annihilator ideal occurs as the annihilator of a factor of any full series of annihilator ideals. An element \(c\in R\) is right regular if \(cr=0\Rightarrow r=0:\) a result of Stafford states is that in a noetherian ring there is a unique irredundant finite set of prime ideals, the right regular set of primes, such that the right regular elements are exactly those elements right regular modulo each of these prime ideals. Under suitable symmetry assumptions (e.g. R has GK-dimension or R is Krull symmetric) the right regular set of prime ideals is shown to be a subset of the annihilators of subfactors of any full series of annihilator ideals. This result helps in the problem of finding the right regular set of prime ideals.