On the strong \((A)\)-rings of Mahdou and Hassani (Q382080)

A commutative ring with identity \(R\) is said to satisfy property (A) if every finitely generated ideal consisting entirely of zero-divisors has a nonzero annihilator. Recently, \textit{N. Mahdou} and \textit{A. R. Hassani} [Mediterr. J. Math. 9, No. 2, 393--402 (2012; Zbl 1298.13004)] introduced a generalization of this notion by defining strong property (A). A commutative ring with identity \(R\) is said to satisfy strong property (A) if every finitely generated ideal which is generated by a finite number of zero-divisors has a nonzero annihilator. In the paper under review the authors show that a ring \(R\) with only finitely many minimal prime ideals is reduced and strong (A)-ring if and only if \(R\) is an integral domain. Thus, the smallest reduced ring which has property (A) but not a strong (A)-ring is \(\mathbb{Z}_2\times \mathbb{Z}_2\). In addition, the authors show that a Noetherian ring \(R\) is a strong (A)-ring if and only if \(\mathrm{Ass}_R(R)\) has a unique maximal element.