Köthe conjecture

In mathematics, the Köthe conjecture is a problem in ring theory, open . It is formulated in various ways. Suppose that R is a ring. One way to state the conjecture is that if R has no nil ideal, other than {0}, then it has no nil one-sided ideal, other than {0}. This question was posed in 1930 by Gottfried Köthe (1905–1989). The Köthe conjecture has been shown to be true for various classes of rings, such as polynomial identity rings and right Noetherian rings, but a general solution remains elusive. The conjecture has several different formulations: (Köthe conjecture) In any ring, the sum of two nil left ideals is nil. In any ring, the sum of two one-sided nil ideals is nil. In any ring, every nil left or right ideal of the ring is contained in the upper nil radical of the ring. For any ring R and for any nil ideal J of R, the matrix ideal Mn(J) is a nil ideal of Mn(R) for every n. For any ring R and for any nil ideal J of R, the matrix ideal M2(J) is a nil ideal of M2(R). For any ring R, the upper nilradical of Mn(R) is the set of matrices with entries from the upper nilradical of R for every positive integer n. For any ring R and for any nil ideal J of R, the polynomials with indeterminate x and coefficients from J lie in the Jacobson radical of the polynomial ring R[x]. For any ring R, the Jacobson radical of R[x] consists of the polynomials with coefficients from the upper nilradical of R. A conjecture by Amitsur read: "If J is a nil ideal in R, then J[x] is a nil ideal of the polynomial ring R[x]." This conjecture, if true, would have proven the Köthe conjecture through the equivalent statements above, however a counterexample was produced by Agata Smoktunowicz. While not a disproof of the Köthe conjecture, this fueled suspicions that the Köthe conjecture may be false. In , it was proven that a ring which is the direct sum of two nilpotent subrings is itself nilpotent. The question arose whether or not "nilpotent" could be replaced with "locally nilpotent" or "nil".

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Concepts associés (4)

Nil ideal

In mathematics, more specifically ring theory, a left, right or two-sided ideal of a ring is said to be a nil ideal if each of its elements is nilpotent. The nilradical of a commutative ring is an example of a nil ideal; in fact, it is the ideal of the ring maximal with respect to the property of being nil. Unfortunately the set of nil elements does not always form an ideal for noncommutative rings. Nil ideals are still associated with interesting open questions, especially the unsolved Köthe conjecture.

Nilpotent ideal

In mathematics, more specifically ring theory, an ideal I of a ring R is said to be a nilpotent ideal if there exists a natural number k such that I k = 0. By I k, it is meant the additive subgroup generated by the set of all products of k elements in I. Therefore, I is nilpotent if and only if there is a natural number k such that the product of any k elements of I is 0. The notion of a nilpotent ideal is much stronger than that of a nil ideal in many classes of rings.

Glossary of ring theory

Ring theory is the branch of mathematics in which rings are studied: that is, structures supporting both an addition and a multiplication operation. This is a glossary of some terms of the subject. For the items in commutative algebra (the theory of commutative rings), see glossary of commutative algebra. For ring-theoretic concepts in the language of modules, see also Glossary of module theory. For specific types of algebras, see also: Glossary of field theory and Glossary of Lie groups and Lie algebras.