The universality of Hughes-free division rings (Q2047273)

Let \(R=E*G\) be a crossed product of a division ring \(E\) and a locally indicable group \(G\). It was proved by Ian Hughes in his PhD thesis is that, up to isomorphism, there is at most one Hughes-free divison epic division ring containing \(E*G\). This paper makes interesting contributions to the problem of the existence of the Hughes-free division ring of fractions and its relation with the universal ring of fractions. To clarify the expected relation between these objects we reproduce the following conjecture formulated by the author in the paper: \begin{itemize} \item[(A)] The Hughes-free division \(R\)-ring \(\mathcal{D}_R\) exists and \item[(B)] it is the universal division ring of fractions of \(R\). \end{itemize} It was already known that part (A) of the conjecture holds for crossed products of a division ring with a Locally indicable amenable group, or with a residually-(torsion-free nilpotent) groups or with a free-by-cyclic groups. In this paper it is proved that part \((B)\) of the conjecture also holds for such crossed products. It is also proved that statements (A) and (B) of the conjecture hold for \(R=E[G]\) the group algebra over the division ring \(E\) and \(G\) a residually-(locally indicable and amenable) group. A key tool in the paper under review are Sylvester matrix rank functions and their extension to module categories. There are a number of interesting results involving them. For example, a criteria to check the universality of an epic \(R\)-division ring \(\mathcal{D}\) in terms of finitely generated \(R\)-submodule of \(\mathcal{D}\) is given, and this is crucial to prove some of the main results. Summarizing, this is an excellent paper, quite self-contained, carefully written and plenty of interesting ideas on Sylvester matrix rank functions and their applications to Hughes-free embeddings into division rings. The interested reader may find it useful to check \textit{J. Gräter}'s paper [Forum Math. 32, No. 3, 739--772 (2020; Zbl 1484.16030)], for further interesting characterizations of Hughes-free embeddings and a good account on related concepts.