Strong exchange rings (Q6109905)

Exchange rings were introduced by \textit{R. B. Warfield jun.} [Math. Ann. 199, 31--36 (1972; Zbl 0228.16012)] as endomorphism rings of modules satisfying the finite exchange property (in Crawley \& Jónsson terms [\textit{P. Crawley} and \textit{B. Jonsson}, Pac. J. Math. 14, 797--855 (1964; Zbl 0134.25504)]). An alternative characterization of these rings was given independently by \textit{K. R. Goodearl} and \textit{R. B. Warfield jun.} [Math. Ann. 223, 157--168 (1976; Zbl 0317.16004)] and \textit{W. K. Nicholson} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 229, 269--278 (1977; Zbl 0352.16006)]: a unital ring \(R\) is exchange if for any \(x\in R\) there exists an idempotent \(e\in xR\) such that \((1-e)\in (1-x)R\). An alternative version of this characterization can be stated in terms of right coprime pairs in \(R\): \(a,b\in R\) are right coprime (denoted \(\langle a,b\rangle\)) if \(R=aR+bR\). We can endow an order relation on such pairs, by saying that \(\langle a,b\rangle\leq \langle a',b'\rangle\) if \(aR\subseteq a'R\) and \(bR\subseteq b'R\); in [\textit{P. A. Guil Asensio} and \textit{I. Herzog}, Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 36, No. 3, 303--309 (2004; Zbl 1068.16003)] it is shown that any under some descending chain conditions on these pairs, the minimal lower bounds exist and have the form \(\langle e, 1-e\rangle\) for a suitable idempotent \(e\in R\). Thus, \(R\) is an exchange ring if and only if for any \(x\in R\) there is a minimum lower bound for the pair \(\langle x, 1-x\rangle\). In the paper under review, the authors stress this condition to introduce the class of (right/left) strong exchange rings, as those who have a minimal lower bound for every compatible (see Definition 3.1 for details) descending chain of right/left coprime pairs (Definition 3.3). Then, they show that any left cotorsion ring is right strong exchange (Theorem 3.6), any local ring is right \& left strong exchange (Proposition 3.7), and the endomorphism ring of any continuous left module is right strong exchange (Theorem 3.11); in particular left self-injective, left pure-injective and left continuous rings are right strong exchange. Then, they analyze the basic properties of right strong exchange rings, and prove that any right strong exchange ring is semiregular (Theorem 4.3), and if it has countably many idempotents then it is semiperfect (Theorem 4.11). They close the paper suggesting some natural and relevant lines of research in this direction.