Coloring of commutative rings (Q1108326)

In this interesting paper the author associates a graph R with a commutative ring R, where elements x and y are adjacent if and only if \(xy=0\). Because of the presence of 0 the graph R is connected and of small diameter. In other settings it may well be very useful to use \(R^*=R-\{0\}\) as the set of vertices of the associated graph. Nevertheless, the author introduces a collection of algebraic notions derived from graph theoretic ones and a conjecture which could well lead to much further speculation, i.e., that for commutative rings R and their graphs R, the clique number equals the chromatic number. This fact would indicate that not all simple graphs are graphs of commutative rings (there is a theorem here at least). The author classifies all rings of chromatic number at most 3. It is noted that the conjecture holds for chromatic numbers up to 5. Furthermore, the beginnings of a graph-related ideal theory are also established. The most important conclusion of the paper is the following: this paper only scratches the surface of the combinatorial properties of the zero divisors in commutative rings. Ultimately, the study of colorings (commutative rings of finite chromatic number) will involve graph theory. Rings have been associated with graphs before, and in meaningful ways. This looks like a nice experiment which has succeeded, with more results to be expected.