Right Gaussian rings and skew power series rings. (Q555555)

The authors extend the notion of a Gaussian ring to a noncommutative setting by introducing right Gaussian rings. For a ring \(R\) and a polynomial \(f\in R[x]\), let \(c_r(f)\) be the right ideal of \(R\) generated by the coefficients of \(f\). If \(c_r(fg)=c_r(f)c_r(g)\) for any \(f,g\in R[x]\), the ring \(R\) is called `right Gaussian'. A few basic properties of such rings are established. For example, the class of all such rings is homomorphically closed and closed under direct products. It is shown that any right duo right distributive ring is right Gaussian and other connections between these rings and related rings are discussed. Various characterizations of right Gaussian skew power series rings and right Gaussian skew generalized power series rings are given. The last section investigates quotients of right Gaussian rings. The paper contains many examples to highlight some properties of these rings or the lack thereof. For example, a ring is given which is right Gaussian but not left Gaussian. Another example gives a right Gaussian ring \(R\) such that for some ideal \(P\) of \(R\) the right ring \(R_S\) of quotients with respect to \(S=R\setminus P\) exists but it is not right Gaussian.