No label defined (Q4442437)

A ring \(R\) is called Brown-McCoy radical if \(R\) cannot be homomorphically mapped onto a ring with an identity. One of the hardest problems in ring theory has been the Köthe problem, which is equivalent to the question of whether for every nil ring \(R\) the polynomial ring \(R[x]\) over \(R\) in one indeterminate \(x\) is Jacobson radical. \textit{E. R. Puczyłowski} and \textit{A. Smoktunowicz} [Commun. Algebra 26, No. 8, 2473-2482 (1998; Zbl 0909.16015)] approximated the Köthe problem from above by showing that \(R[x]\) is Brown-McCoy radical for any nil ring \(R\). Moreover, they asked whether, for every \(n\), the polynomial ring \(R[x_1,x_2,\dots,x_n]\) over a ring \(R\) in \(n\) commuting indeterminates \(x_1,x_2,\dots,x_n\) is Brown-McCoy radical for any nil ring \(R\). In this paper the author shows that if \(R[x]\) is Jacobson radical, then \(R[x_1,x_2]\) is Brown-McCoy radical. Thus, if the Köthe conjecture is true then \(R[x_1,x_2]\) is Brown-McCoy radical for any nil ring \(R\). Moreover, the author proves that if \(R\) is a ring such that for some \(m\), the polynomial ring \(R\langle y_1,y_2,\dots,y_m\rangle\) over \(R\) in \(m\) noncommuting indeterminates \(y_1,y_2,\dots,y_m\) can be homomorphically mapped onto a ring with an identity, then for some \(n\), the polynomial ring \(R[x_1,x_2,\dots,x_n]\) over \(R\) in \(n\) commuting indeterminates \(x_1,x_2,\dots,x_n\) can also be mapped onto a ring with an identity. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1023.00016].