Factorizations of matrices over projective-free rings (Q2796958)

Let \(R\) be a ring with identity and let \(J(R)\) denote the Jacobson radical. The authors define \(J^{\#}(R)\) as the set of all \(x\in R\) such that \(x^{n}\in J(R)\) for some integer \(n>0\). They say that \(x\in R\) is strongly \(J^{\#} \)-clean when there exists an idempotent \(e\) such that \(xe=ex\) and \(x-e\in J^{\#}(R)\). Now suppose that \(R\) is commutative and let \(M_{n}(R)\) be the ring of \(n\times n\) matrices over \(R\). The ring \(R\) is defined to projective-free if every finitely generated projective \(R\)-module is free. Some typical results are the following. If \(\varphi\in M_{n}(R)\) has characteristic polynomial \(\chi\in R[t]\), then \(\varphi\in J^{\#}(M_{n}(R))\iff\) \(\chi -t^{n}\in J(R)[t]\). In the case where \(R\) is projective-free and \(n=2\) or \(3\), the authors use this to characterize the strongly \(J^{\#}\)-clean elements of \(M_{n}(R)\) in terms of their characteristic polynomials.