Coefficient assignability and a block decomposition for systems over rings (Q935396)

The authors characterize the class of commutative rings R such that any linear system \((A, B)\) with coefficients in R has a decomposition similar to the classical Kalman controllability decomposition for systems over fields. Using the action of the feedback group the authors prove that {R is an Hermite ring if and only if such a decomposition exists for all single-input systems over R, with the reachable part in the control canonical form} and that {R is a UCU ring if and only if such a decomposition exists for any system over R}. The notion of strong CA ring is introduced as the class of commutative rings over which any system verifies a strong form of the coefficient assignability property. The relation between the class of strong CA rings and the classes of rings with strong versions of pole assignability (PA) and feedback cyclization (FC) properties, defined for reachable systems, are investigated. Generalizing the reachable case, it is shown that the class of strong CA rings lies strictly between PS rings and strong FC rings. Moreover, it is shown that for UCU rings the usual PA, CA and FC properties are equivalent to the corresponding strong forms of these properties. Then, in particular, all known classes of CA rings are in fact strong CA rings, for example: local and semilocal rings, local-global rings, Bezout domains with stable range \(1\) and polynomial rings \(k[x]\), with \(k\) an algebraically closed field.