A simplification of Morita's construction of total right rings of quotients for a class of rings. (Q855344)

Every ring has a maximal perfect right ring of quotients, unique up to isomorphism. It is called `total right ring of quotients' (and it is denoted by \(Q^r_{\text{tot}}(R)\)). In the present paper it is proved that Morita's construction (1971) of \(Q^r_{\text{tot}}(R)\) can be simplified for rings satisfying the condition (C): Every subring of the maximal right ring of quotients \(Q^r_{\text{tot}}(R)\) containing \(R\) is flat as a left \(R\)-module. If \(R\subseteq S\) and \(_RS\) is flat, then the class of modules \(\{M_R\mid M\otimes_RS=0\}\) defines a hereditary torsion theory, denoted by \(\tau_S\). The idea of the construction of \(Q^r_{\text{tot}}(R)\) is the following. Starting with \(Q^r_{\max}(R)=Q_0\), if it is perfect, then \(Q_0=Q^r_{\text{tot}}(R)\). If not, the strictly smaller torsion theory \(\tau_{Q_0}\) is considered. If it is perfect, then its maximal right ring of quotients \(Q_1\) is \(Q^r_{\text{tot}}(R)\). If not, then the strictly smaller torsion theory \(\tau_{Q_1}\) is considered and continued inductively. If the construction does not end after finitely many steps, it is considered \(Q_\omega\) as intersection of the rings \(Q_n\) (\(n\geq 0\)), and proceeded inductively. It is proved that Morita's construction coincides with the one indicated above if \(R\) satisfies the condition (C). A right semihereditary ring \(R\) satisfies the condition (C), and in this case the construction of \(Q^r_{\text{tot}}(R)\) stops after at most one step, obtaining a simple description of \(Q^r_{\text{tot}}(R)\) as the set of elements \(a\in Q^r_{\max}(R)\) such that \(ar_i\in R\) and \(\sum^n_{i=1}r_ia_i=1\) for some \(n\), \(a_i\in Q^r_{\max}(R)\) and \(r_i\in R\) (\(i=1,\dots,n\)).