No label defined (Q3146173)

An ideal \(P\) of a ring \(R\) is called a strongly prime ideal of \(R\) if the factor ring \(R/P\) is a prime ring with no non-zero nil ideals. An ideal \(P\) of a ring \(R\) is called a minimal strongly prime ideal of \(R\) if \(P\) is minimal in the set \(\text{Spec}_S(R)\) of all strongly prime ideals of \(R\). An ideal \(I\) of a ring \(R\) is called a completely prime ideal of \(R\) if the factor ring \(R/I\) is a domain. In this paper the relationships between strongly prime ideals and completely prime ideals of an associative ring \(R\) with identity are studied. The authors consider the following condition a ring \(R\) may enjoy: (*) nilpotent elements of \(R\) form an ideal of \(R\). They show that if \(R\) satisfies (*), then \(N(P)=\bigcap\{Q\in\text{Spec}_S(R):N(P)\subseteq Q\subseteq P\}\) for each \(P\in\text{Spec}_S(R)\), where \(N(P)\) denotes the set of all nilpotent elements of \(P\). The authors use the above result to show that if \(R\) satisfies (*), then for each strongly prime ideal \(P\) of \(R\) the following conditions are equivalent: (1) \(P\) is a minimal strongly prime ideal of \(R\). (2) \(N(P)=P\). (3) For any \(a\in P\), \(ab\in N_r(R)\) for some \(b\in R\setminus P\), where \(N_r(R)\) denotes the unique maximal nil ideal of \(R\). Finally, the authors show that the following conditions are equivalent for a ring \(R\): (1) \(R\) satisfies (*). (2) Every minimal strongly prime ideal of \(R\) is completely prime. (3) \(N_r(R)\) coincides with the intersection of all completely prime ideals of \(R\).