On rings with a Heisenberg pair (Q1901571)

Let \(R\) be a ring. The elements \(a,b\in R\) are a Heisenberg pair if \(ab-ba=1\) in \(R\). The authors give an example of a projective \(R\)-module \(P\) that is not finitely generated and such that \(\text{End}_RP\) does not contain any Heisenberg pair. Another example given shows that the same holds even assuming that \(R\) has no central idempotents (except for 0 and 1). In addition several sufficient, and some necessary conditions for existence of Heisenberg pairs are obtained. Two of them are the following. 1. Let \(R\) be commutative and \(\text{End}_RM\) contain Heisenberg pairs for any \(R\)-module \(M\) that is not finitely generated. Then \(R\) is a field. 2. Let \(R\) be a PI algebra over the rationals. If \(\text{End}_RM\) contains Heisenberg pairs for every \(R\)-module \(M\) that is not finitely generated then \(R\) is a simple Artinian ring.