The diameter of a zero divisor graph (Q2498880)

Let \(R\) be a commutative ring with \(1\) and let \(Z(R)^{\ast }\) be its set of nonzero zero divisors. The zero divisor graph \(\Gamma (R)\) of \(R \)\ has vertices \(Z(R)^{\ast }\) with two vertices \(x\) and \(y\) connected by an edge if and only if \(xy=0\). \ \textit{D. F.\ Anderson} and \textit{P. S. Livingston} [J. Algebra 217, 434--447 (1999; Zbl 0941.05062)] showed that \(\Gamma (R)\) is connected, has diameter \(\text{diam}(\Gamma (R))\leq 3\), and characterized the rings with \(\text{diam}(\Gamma (R))\leq 1\). \textit{M. Axtell, J. Coykendall} and \textit{J.\ Stickles} [Commun. Algebra 33, 2043--2050 (2005; Zbl 1088.13006)] investigated the zero divisor graphs of \(R[X]\) and \( R[[X]]\) and showed among other things that for \(R\) noetherian not isomorphic to \(\mathbb{Z}_{2}\times \mathbb{Z}_{2}\), if one of \(\Gamma (R)\), \(\Gamma (R[X])\), or \(\Gamma (R[[X]])\) has diameter \(2\), then so do the other two. The main result of the paper under review is that for \(R\) a reduced ring that is not an integral domain, we have \(1\leq \text{diam}(\Gamma (R))\leq \text{diam}(\Gamma (R[X]))\leq \text{diam}(\Gamma (R[[X]]))\leq 3\) and all possible sequences for these three diameters are given. For example, \(\text{diam}(\Gamma (R))=\text{diam}(\Gamma (R[X]))=\text{diam}(\Gamma (R[[X]]))=3\) if and only if \(R\) has more than two minimal primes and there is a pair of zero divisors \(a\) and \(b\) such that \((a,b)\) does not have nonzero annihilator. A similar characterization is given for \(\text{diam}(\Gamma (R))\) and \(\text{diam}(\Gamma (R[X]))\) when \(R\) is not reduced.