Real closed rings and real closed \(\ast\) rings (Q392382)

In the literature there exist several different notions of real closed rings, all of them generalizing real closed fields. The author considers two classses of real closed rings -- the ones introduced by the reviewer [in: Algebra and order, Proc. 1st Int. Symp., Luminy-Marseilles/France 1984, Res. Expo. Math. 14, 175--194 (1986; Zbl 0616.14019)] (and called \textit{real closed rings}) and those due to \textit{N. Sankaran} and \textit{K. Varadarajan} [Acta Math. Hung. 70, No. 1-2, 101--120 (1996; Zbl 0856.13003)] (called \textit{real closed * rings} by the author and \textit{\(SV\)-real closed} in this review). The author shows that none of these two classes of rings contains the other one. But he exhibits various connnections between them. Every partially ordered ring has a unique real closure and has (in general several non-isomorphic) \(SV\)-real closures. The author presents conditions implying that \(SV\)-real closures are also unique. These conditions apply for example in the case of \(f\)-rings.