Ring hulls and applications. (Q855328)

In this very lengthy and quite interesting paper, the authors consider the following two problems. Problem I: For a given ring \(R\) and a class \(\mathbf k\) of rings: (i) to find conditions to ensure the existence of right rings of quotients and that of right essential overrings of \(R\) which are in some sense ``minimal'' with respect to belonging to the class \(\mathbf k\). (ii) Characterizing right rings of quotients and right essential overrings of \(R\) which lie in the class \(\mathbf k\), possibly using ``minimal'' ones obtained in part (i). Problem II: Given a ring \(S\) and a class \(\mathbf k\), to find rings \(T\in\mathbf k\) such that \(S=Q(T)\) (the maximal right ring of quotients of \(T\)). In Section 2 the authors develop theory to tackle problems I and II mentioned above. Their main theorem in this section is the following. Let \(R\) be a ring such that its maximal right ring of quotients \(Q(R)\) is Abelian. If further \(R\) is a right Ore ring such that \(r_R(x)=0\) implies \(l_R(x)=0\) for each \(x\in R\) and \(Z(R_R)\) has finite right uniform dimension, then \(Q(R)\) is right extending if and only if \(\widehat Q_{Con}(R)\) exists and is equal to \(H_1\oplus H_2\) for some right continuous strongly regular ring \(H_1\) and a direct sum \(H_2\) of right continuous local rings. They use the theory developed in Section 2, answer Problems I and II stated above when the class \(\mathbf k\) is the class of Baer rings, (FI) extending rings or the class of right (semi-)hereditary rings and the ring \(R\) (in Problem I) or the ring \(T\) (in Problem II) is a subring of a \(2\times 2\) matrix ring. In this direction, they characterize a right extending ring whose maximal ring of quotients is \(M_2(D)\) for a division ring \(D\). They provide answer to Problem I for the case when \(\mathbf k\) is the class of all right extending rings and \(R=T_2(W)\) by characterizing the right extending right rings of quotients which are intermediate between \(T_2(W)\) and \(M_2(W)\) where \(W\) is a local right finitely \(\Sigma\)-extending ring. They conclude the paper with some open problems.