Polyfunctions over commutative rings

Abstract: A function

f : R o R

, where

R

is a commutative ring with unit element, is called polyfunction if it admits a polynomial representative

p i n R [x]

. Based on this notion we introduce ring invariants which associate to

R

the numbers

s (R)

and

s (R^{'}; R)

, where

R^{'}

is the subring generated by

1

. For the ring

R = m a t h b b Z / n m a t h b b Z

the invariant

s (R)

coincides with the number theoretic emph{Smarandache function}

s (n)

. If every function in a ring

R

is a polyfunction, then

R

is a finite field according to the R'edei-Szele theorem, and it holds that

s (R) = | R |

. However, the condition

s (R) = | R |

does not imply that every function

f : R o R

is a polyfunction. We classify all finite commutative rings

R

with unit element which satisfy

s (R) = | R |

. For infinite rings

R

, we obtain a bound on the cardinality of the subring

R^{'}

and for

s (R^{'}; R)

in terms of

s (R)

. In particular we show that

| R^{'} | l e q s l a n t s (R)!

. We also give two new proofs for the R'edei-Szele theorem which are based on our results.

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