Armendariz property over prime radicals. (Q2861450)

In this paper every ring is associative with identity unless otherwise stated. Given a ring \(R\) (possibly without identity), \(N_*(R)\), \(N^*(R)\), and \(N(R)\) denote the prime radical, the upper nil radical and the set of all nilpotent elements in \(R\), respectively. \(R[x]\) denotes the polynomial ring in indeterminate \(x\) over \(R\). For \(f(x)\in R[x]\), \(C_{f(x)}\) denotes the set of all coefficients of \(f(x)\). A ring \(R\) (possibly without identity) is called Armendariz if \(ab=0\) for all \(a\in C_{f(x)}\), \(b\in C_{g(x)}\) whenever \(f(x)g(x)=0\), where \(f(x),g(x)\in R[x]\). A ring \(R\) is called nil-Armendariz if \(ab\in N(R)\) for all \(a\in C_{f(x)}\) and \(b\in C_{g(x)}\) whenever \(f(x)g(x)\in N(R)[x]\) for \(f(x),g(x)\in R[x]\). A ring is called Abelian if every idempotent is central.NEWLINENEWLINE The authors call a ring \(R\) Armendariz-over-prime radical (or APR, in short) if \(f(x)g(x)\in N_*(R)[x]\) implies \(ab\in N_*(R)\) for all \(a\in C_{f(x)}\) and \(b\in C_{g(x)}\) where \(f(x),g(x)\in R[x]\). Thus \(R\) is APR if and only if \(R/N_*(R)\) is Armendariz.NEWLINENEWLINE In this paper the authors study the structure of APR rings. In particular, they show that APR rings are nil-Armendariz but not the other way round. They also show that Armendariz rings are APR but not the other way round. They prove, however, that an APR ring which is not Armendariz can always be constructed from any Armendariz ring. The authors ask whether the class of APR rings is closed under subrings and give some conditions that assure that it is so. They show that the direct product \(\prod _{i\in I}R_i\) of rings \(R_i\) is APR if and only if each \(R_i\) is APR. They prove that if \(I\) is an ideal of a ring \(R\) such that \(I\subseteq N_*(R)\), then \(R\) is APR if and only if so is \(R/I\). They show, however, that, in general, a homomorphic image of an APR ring need not to be APR. The authors describe minimal (that is, having smallest cardinality) APR rings, left or right Artinian APR rings as well as APR rings whose every prime factor ring is left or right Noetherian.NEWLINENEWLINE In the second part of the paper the authors examine the preservation of the APR property under basic ring extensions such as polynomial rings, power series rings, skew polynomial rings and Dorroh extensions of rings. For example, they show that a ring \(R\) is APR if and only if so is \(R[X]\) and if a ring \(R\) is APR, then \(N(R[X])=N(R)[X]\), where \(X\) denotes a nonempty set of commuting indeterminates over \(R\). The paper contains a wealth of examples which illustrate the rich structure of APR rings.