A note on nil-clean rings (Q2235072)

Two idempotents \(e\), \(f\) in a ring \(R\) generate the same left ideal (i.e., \( Re=Rf\)) iff \(ef=e\) and \(fe=f\). Such idempotents are called by the author, ``left-right symmetric''. For any nil-clean ring it is well known that \(2\) is nilpotent, the Jacobson radical is nil and if the ring is also an abelian ring, every nilpotent element is contained in the Jacobson radical (see [\textit{A. J. Diesl}, J. Algebra 383, 197--211 (2013; Zbl 1296.16016)]). Repeatedly using these facts, the author obtains the following results: Proposition 1. If \(R\) is a nil-clean ring such that each nilpotent is a difference of two commuting idempotents, then \(R\) is a boolean ring. Theorem 1. Every nil-clean ring in which all nilpotents are difference of two left-right symmetric idempotents are strongly \(\pi \)-regular. Using results from [the author and \textit{T.-Y. Lam}, Publ. Math. 88, No. 3--4, 449--466 (2016; Zbl 1374.16089)], the following result is derived Theorem 2. Suppose \(R\) is a nil-clean ring with cyclic unit group \( U(R)\). Then \(R\) is strongly nil-clean of characteristic 2 if and only if \(U(R)\) is a 2-group. In closing, some open problems are stated.