On the tree structure of orderings and valuations on rings (Q2032828)

The paper deals with the properties of unital (not necessarily commutative) rings with order or valuation. The text of the paper is well written and easily followed also by mathematicians who are not specialists on this particular topic (which is usually not the case with many of the papers on similar topic). \textit{The quasi-ordering} on a set \(R\) is a binary, reflexive, transitive and total relation \(\leqslant\) on this set. If \(\leqslant\) is a quasi-ordering on a set \(R\), then the following equivalence relation \(\sim\) is defined on \(R\): \(x\sim y\) if an only if \(x\leqslant y\) and \(y\leqslant x\) for all \(x, y,\in R\). For \(x, y\in R\) one writes \(x<y\) if \(x\leqslant y\) and \(y\not\leqslant x\). In case the set \(R\) with quasi-ordering appears to be a unital ring \(R\) (with zero element \(\theta_R\) and unit element \(1_R\)), then the following extra conditions for all \(a, b, x, y, z\in R\) have to be fulfilled in order to call this ring \((R, \leqslant)\) \textit{a quasi-ordered ring}: (1) \(\theta_R<1_R\); (2) if \(\theta_R\leqslant a, b\), then \(x\leqslant y\) if and only if \(axb\leqslant ayb\); (3) if \(z\not\sim y\) and \(x\leqslant y\), then \(x+z\leqslant y+z\). Quasi-orderings are introduced for treating orderings and valuations on rings simultaneously. For a ring \(R\) denote the set of all its quasi-orderings by \(Q(R)\). On set \(Q(R)\) define the ordering \(\preceq\) as follows: \(\leqslant_1\preceq\leqslant_2\) if and only if from \(x, y\in R\) and \(\theta_R\leqslant_1 x\leqslant_1 y\) follows that \(x\leqslant_2 y\). Let \(q\) be a two-sided completely prime ideal of a ring \(R\). Then \(Q_q(R)\) will denote the set of all quasi-orderings on \(R\) with support \(q\). As \(Q_q(R)\subseteq Q(R)\), then we can also consider the same ordering \(\preceq\) on \(Q_q(R)\) (actually we consider the restriction of \(\preceq\) to \(Q_q(R)\) but will not use different symbol for that). On the set \(Q(R)\), the following topologies are considered: (a) \textit{the tree topology} \(\tau_T\), generated by the closed subsets \(\{W(a, b): a, b\in R\}\), where \(W(a, b)=\{\leqslant\in Q(R): \theta_R\leqslant a\leqslant b\}\); (b) \textit{the spectral topology} or \textit{the Harrison topology} \(H\) generated by the open subbasis consisting of all sets \(\{U(a, b): a, b\in R\}\) in the form \(U(a, b)=\{\leqslant\in O(R): a<b\}\), where \(O(R)\) denotes the set of all orderings on \(R\); (c) \textit{the Tychonoff topology} \(T\), generated by the open subbasis \(\{U(a, b)\subseteq Q(R): a, b\in R\}\cup\{V(a, b)\subseteq Q(R): a, b\in R\}\), where \(V(a, b)=\{\leqslant\in O(R): a\leqslant b\}\). Some of the main results of the paper are the following: (A) Let \(R\) be a ring and \(\leqslant\) a binary relation on \(R\). Then \((R, \leqslant)\) is a quasi-ordered ring if and only if \(\leqslant\) is an order on \(R\) or there is a unique (up to equivalence) valuation on \(R\), which reverses the order of the elements. (B) Let \(R\) be a ring. Then \((Q(R), \preceq)\) is a partially ordered set. (C) Let \(R\) be a unital ring and \(q\) a two-sided completely prime ideal of \(R\). Then \((Q_q(R), \preceq)\) is a tree that admits a maximum. (D) Let \(R\) be a unital ring. Then (i) \((Q(R), \tau_T)\) is a \(T_0\)-space; (ii) \((Q(R), H)\) is a \(T_0\)-space, which is also homeomorphic to the Zariski spectrum of a commutative ring; (iii) \((Q(R), T)\) is a compact space.