No label defined (Q4517586)

The authors give a survey of results on the problem of determining when a commutative Noetherian group ring or monoid ring has the \(n\)-generator property. For an ideal \(I\) of a commutative ring \(R\) with identity, let \(\mu(I)\) denote the minimal number of generators of \(I\). If \(\mu(I)\leq n\) for all ideals \(I\) of \(R\), then \(R\) is said to have the \(n\)-generator property. The Dilworth number of \(R\) is \(d(R)=\max\{\mu(I)\mid I\) is an ideal of \(R\}\) and the Sperner number of an Artin local ring \((R,m)\) is \(\text{sp}(R)=\max\{\mu(m^i)\mid i\geq 0\}\). The Dilworth number and Sperner number are calculated for several classes of commutative monoid rings. The main results considered in this survey are for commutative Noetherian group rings \(R[G]\) with \(\dim(R)=\text{rank}(G)=0\). In some cases, simpler proofs of known results are also given. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0944.00041].