On the complexity of radicals in noncommutative rings (Q2655033)

Suppose that \(R\) is a ring, commutative or noncommutative. The Levitski radical is the largest locally nilpotent ideal of \(R\), and consists of all those \(x \in R\) such that \(xR\) is locally nilpotent. Here, \(xR\) is locally nilpotent if for every finite subset \(S\) of \(xR\) there is a natural number \(n\) such that any product of \(n\) elements from \(S\) is zero. If \(R\) is a computable ring, then the Levitski radical is \(\Pi^0_2\)-definable. One central result of this paper shows that this is a sharp upper bound on the computational complexity of \(L\); there is a computable ring \(R\) with a \(\Pi^0_2\)-complete Levitski radical. The paper also considers the prime radical of \(R\), which is the intersection of all prime ideals of \(R\). If \(R\) is a computable ring, then its prime radical is \(\Pi^1_1\)-definable; the other central result of the paper constructs a computable ring with a \(\Pi^1_1\) complete prime radical. These results parallel work by \textit{R. G. Downey}, \textit{S. Lempp}, and \textit{J. R. Mileti} on nilradicals and Jacobian radicals in computable commutative rings [``Ideals in computable rings'', J. Algebra 314, No. 2, 872--887 (2007; Zbl 1127.03037)].