Embeddings in Artinian rings and Sylvester rank functions (Q580481)

Let R be a Noetherian ring. Can R be embedded in an Artinian ring? In general the answer is ``No''. This paper includes a helpful survey of known results about this question. The new results deal with the case in which R is an algebra over a field k. The main strategy is as follows: use some function associated with R, for example Goldie's reduced rank function, to define a Sylvester module rank function f; apply Schofield's theorem which shows that f corresponds to a homomorphism g from R into a simple Artinian k-algebra, and which describes Ker(g) precisely; impose a condition on R which forces Ker(g) to be 0. It is shown that the right Noetherian k-algebra R embeds in an Artinian k-algebra if (1) the elements of R which are regular modulo the nilpotent radical are left regular in R, or (2) R is right Krull homogeneous, or (3) R is an affine P.I. ring.