Decompositions of Baer-like rings (Q1206283)

This paper introduces an ideal, here denoted by \(D(R)\), of a ring \(R\) which is closely associated with both the nilpotent elements and the idempotents of \(R\). \(D(R)\) is defined to be the subring of \(R\) generated by all the subsets \(eR(1-e)\) where \(e\) ranges over all the idempotents of \(R\). In the first section the author shows that \(D(R)\) is an ideal and establishes various properties of it and related concepts. For example, he shows that \(D(R[x]) = D(R)[x]\) for an indeterminate \(x\) and if each principal right ideal of \(R\) is projective then \(D(R)\) is the ideal generated by the nilpotent elements of \(R\). The second section looks at various right ideal decompositions of \(R\), extending previous results of the author [Pac. J. Math. 97, 283-292 (1981; Zbl 0432.16010)] and \textit{Y. Utumi} [Can. J. Math. 12, 597-605 (1960; Zbl 0100.263)]. As a sample we give the author's Theorem 2.5: If \(R\) is a ring in which the right annihilator of any closed right ideal is essential in a direct summand then \(R = A \oplus B \oplus C\) where \(A\), \(B\), \(C\) are right ideals of \(R\) such that \(A\) is an essential extension of \(Y \oplus D(R)\) for some right ideal \(Y\) of \(R\) with \(Y^ 2 = 0\), \(B\) is a ring with essential prime radical, and \(C\) is a semiprime quasi-Baer ring with \(D(C) = 0\).