On a partially ordered set associated to ring morphisms (Q2315000)

This article is devoted to a comprehensive treatment of a functor that is introduced from the category \textbf{Ring} of associative rings to the category \textbf{ParOrd} of partially ordered sets. The functor may be defined by first associating to a ring \(R\) the category of \(R\)-rings, that is, ring morphisms of the form \(\rho : R \to S\) considered as a category in the usual way, and then associating to \(\rho\) the pair \((\mathrm{Ker} (\rho), M)\), where \(M\) consists of the monoid of elements in \(R\) that become invertible in \(S\) via \(\rho\). The set of such pairs is partially ordered by inclusion and the authors aver that the partially ordered set so defined -- and denoted by \(\Hom (R)\) -- may serve as a kind of spectrum of \(R\). Given a pair \((\mathcal{A}, M)\) for which there exists a \(\rho : R \to S\) as above, there is a canonical epic representative, obtained by post composing the quotient ring \(\pi : R \to R/\mathcal{A}\) with the universal map that formally inverts the elements of the form \(m + \mathcal{A}\), \(m \in M\). It is shown in Theorem 7.3 that the subring of \(S\) generated by the image \(\rho (R)\) and the elements of the form \(\rho (m)^{-1}\), \(m \in M\), is an epic \(R\)-ring that factors uniquely through the canonical epic representative of \((\mathcal{A}, M)\). Many other interesting aspects of this partial order are considered both in the context of examples and how certain categorical constructions in the category of \(R\)-rings are reflected by the partial order \(\Hom (R)\).