Weakly-Abel rings and weakly exchange rings. (Q2392060)

The author introduces the notion of weakly exchange ring, extending the notion of exchange ring introduced by \textit{W. K.~Nicholson} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 229, 269-278 (1977; Zbl 0352.16006)]. A ring \(R\) is weakly exchange if every element is weakly exchange, where an element \(x\) is weakly exchange if there exists an idempotent element \(e\in R\) such that \(e\in xR\) and \(1-e\in(1-x)R\) or \((1-e)\in(1+x)R\). This class of rings includes the weakly clean rings [see \textit{A. Y. M.~Chin and K. T.~Qua}, Acta Math. Hung. 132, No. 1-2, 113-116 (2011; Zbl 1232.16022)]) as well. A ring \(R\) is said to be weakly-Abel if \(eR(1-e)\subseteq J(R)\), the Jacobson radical of \(R\), for each idempotent \(e\in R\). Several properties of this class of rings are given and they are characterized by two propertes: i) \(Re+R(eg-1)=R\) for any two idempotents \(e,g\in R\) and ii) for each left maximal ideal \(M\) and idempotent element \(e\) either \(e\in M\) or \(1-e\in M\). It is shown that for weakly-Abel rings the properties of weakly exchange and weakly clean are equivalent. A condition is found to assure that a weakly exchange ring is unit regular.