Model companion and model completion of theories of rings (Q2391092)

The usual language for rings is augmented by, for each natural number \(k\), a \(k+1\)-ary relation symbol \(\text{rad}_k\), the intended interpretation of which is that \(\text{rad}_k(a, b_1, \dots, b_k)\) holds iff every maximal ideal which contains \(b_1,\dots, b_k\) also contains \(a\). This allows a more refined view of the existence and description (as a certain theory of von Neumann regular rings), due to \textit{A. B. Carson} [``The model-completion of the theory of commutative regular rings'', J. Algebra 27, 136--146 (1973; Zbl 0279.02037)] and \textit{L. Lipshitz} and \textit{D. Saracino} [``The model companion of the theory of commutative rings without nilpotent elements'', Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 38, 381--387 (1973; Zbl 0267.02040)], of the model companion, but not model-completion, of the theory of nilpotent-free rings. In particular it is shown that the aforementioned theory is the model completion of the theory of semisimple rings in this larger language. On the other hand, the theory of nilpotent-free rings in the augmented language does not have a model companion. Rather different results are obtained if just the single relation symbol \(\text{rad}_1\) is added to the language of rings.