Three open questions on residually small rings (Q2181173)

Four open questions were raised by \textit{G. Oman} and \textit{A. Salminen} [Commun. Algebra 46, No. 5, 2109--2122 (2018; Zbl 1439.13010)]. Three of them are answered in this article, as follows: (1) Let \(R\) be a local ring. For an ideal \(I\) of \(R\) such that \(|R/I| = |R|\), is it true that \(R\) is a residually small ring if and only if \(R/I\) is a residually small ring? For this question a counterexample is given. (2) Let \(D_1 \subseteq D_2\) be a finite ring extension with \(D_1\) a residually small ring. Must \(D_2\) be a residually small ring? This question is also answered in negative by providing a counterexample. (3) It is proven that if \(D\) is an infinite domain, \(S \subseteq D\) is a multiplicative subset and \(D_S\) is a residually small ring, then the following hold: (i) \(S\) is a proper subset of \(D \setminus \{0\}\) and (ii) for any nonzero \(d \in D \setminus S\), there exists an ideal \(I\) of \(D\) disjoint from \(S\) such that \(Sd \cap I = \emptyset\) and \(|D/I| < |D|\). This result answers another question afirmatively. The authors also find and expose some mistakes in the papers by \textit{G. Oman} and \textit{A. Salminen} [Commun. Algebra 46, No. 5, 2109--2122 (2018; Zbl 1439.13010)] and respectively in [\textit{G. Oman} and \textit{A. Salminen}, J. Commut. Algebra 10, No. 2, 187--211 (2018; Zbl 1400.13010)].