Nil-clean and strongly nil-clean rings. (Q888839)

Let \(a\) be an element of a ring \(R\) with identity. Then \(a\) is called \textit{clean} if \(a\) can be written as \(a=e+b\) where \(e=e^2\in R\) is an idempotent and \(b\in R\) is a unit. If this can be done in such a way that \(eb=be\), then \(a\) is called \textit{strongly clean}. If \(a\) can be written as \(a=e+b\) where \(e\in R\) is idempotent and \(b\in R\) is nilpotent, then \(a\) is called \textit{nil-clean}. If this can be done in such a way that \(eb=be\), then \(a\) is called \textit{strongly nil-clean}. The ring \(R\) is called clean (resp. strongly clean, nil-clean, strongly nil-clean) if all elements of \(R\) are clean (resp. strongly clean, nil-clean, strongly nil-clean). The authors present results regarding the connections between the above concepts in several rings related to \(R\). We mention some of the main results: 1. An element \(a\in R\) is strongly nil-clean if and only if \(a\) is strongly clean and \(a-a^2\) is nilpotent. 2. The ring \(R\) is strongly nil-clean if and only if \(R/J(R)\) is Boolean and \(J(R)\) is a nil ideal. (Here, \(J(R)\) denotes the Jacobson radical of \(R\).) 3. Let \(R:=\left(\begin{smallmatrix} A&M\\ N&B\end{smallmatrix}\right)\) be a Morita context. If \(R\) is a strongly nil-clean ring, then \(A\) and \(B\) are strongly nil-clean rings, \(MN\subseteq J(A)\) and \(NM\subseteq J(B)\). The converse holds if \(MN\) and \(NM\) are nilpotent ideals of the rings \(A\) and \(B\), respectively. 4. Let \(R\) be a ring and \(G\) a group. Then, if the group ring \(RG\) is strongly nil-clean, \(R\) is strongly nil-clean and \(G\) is a \(2\)-group. Conversely, if \(R\) is strongly nil-clean and \(G\) is a locally finite \(2\)-group, then \(RG\) is strongly nil-clean. 5. Let \(R\) be a \(2\)-primal ring (i.e., \(R/I\) is a domain for every minimal prime ideal \(I\) of \(R\)), and \(n\geq 1\). Then the full matrix ring \(M_n(R)\) is nil-clean if and only if \(R/J(R)\) is Boolean and \(J(R)\) is a nil ideal (i.e., \(R\) is strongly nil-clean). Several further results are proved, including some for rings not necessarily with identity.