Division closed partially ordered rings (Q1689293)

Given a partially ordered ring \(R\) (possibly with zero-divisors), a canonical positive cone \(\mathcal{P}\) is defined on the field of fractions \(q(R)\) under which \(q(R)\) is a `regular division closed' partially ordered ring, a new condition introduced by the authors, and it is shown that \(R\) embeds in \(q(R)\) as a partially ordered ring iff \(R\) is also regular division closed. In the case that \(R\) is a lattice-ordered integral domain, a new notion of being `strongly positively saturated' is introduced and shown to be equivalent to the field of fractions \(q(R)\) being totally ordered under the ordering induced by \(\mathcal{P}\) -- this is generalized to show that any \(d\)-ring \(R\) is strongly positively saturated iff \(R\) is totally ordered. A new notion of `separating elements' in a partially ordered ring are introduced and used to characterize regular division closed \(\ell\)-rings in terms of their positive regular elements, and it is shown that any semiprime almost \(f\)-ring whose positive elements are all `super-separating' is in fact a totally ordered integral domain. Division closed \(\ell\)-rings are then explored in full generality, culminating with a proof that any unital division closed \(\ell\)-ring with no nonzero positive nilpotent elements is a totally ordered integral domain, as is any division closed reduced \(d\)-ring (possibly without identity).