Picard groups and infinite matrix rings (Q4211073)

A ring \(A\) is said to have local units if it contains a set of idempotents \(E\) such that \(A=\bigcup_{e\in E}eAe\). The authors connect the Picard group \(\text{Pic}(A)\) of such a ring \(A\) and the Picard group of the ring with unit \(\text{End}_A(A)\) (into which \(A\) canonically embeds). Using this, they prove for any ring with unit \(R\) an isomorphism between the Picard group \(\text{Pic}(R)\) of \(R\), the Picard group of \(FM(R)\), the ring of countably infinite matrices over \(R\), whose entries have almost all components equal to 0, and the Picard group of \(RFM(R)\), the ring of row-finite matrices over \(R\). As a corollary, it appears that \(\text{Out}_R(RFM(R))=\text{Picent}(R)\), so it is Abelian, thus generalizing a classical result due to Rosenberg and Zelinsky.