Related papers: Similarity and commutators of matrices over princi…

We prove that for every trace zero matrix $A$ over a principal ideal ring $R$, there exist trace zero matrices $X,Y$ over $R$ such that $XY-YX=A$. Moreover, we show that $X$ can be taken to be regular mod every maximal ideal of $R$. This…

Let $R$ be a local principal ideal ring of length two, for example, the ring $R=\Z/p^2\Z$ with $p$ prime. In this paper we develop a theory of normal forms for similarity classes in the matrix rings $M_n(R)$ by interpreting them in terms of…

A ring is called a commutator ring if every element is a sum of additive commutators. In this paper we give examples of such rings. In particular, we show that given any ring R, a right R-module N, and a set X, End_R(\bigoplus_X N) and…

A famous result due to I. M. Isaacs states that if a commutative ring $R$ has the property that every prime ideal is principal, then every ideal of $R$ is principal. This motivates ring theorists to study commutative rings for which every…

Many classical ring-theoretic results state that an ideal that is maximal with respect to satisfying a special property must be prime. We present a "Prime Ideal Principle" that gives a uniform method of proving such facts, generalizing the…

Let $R$ be a commutative ring with the unit element. It is shown that an ideal $I$ in $R$ is pure if and only if Ann$(f)+I=R$ for all $f\in I$. If $J$ is the trace of a projective $R$-module $M$, we prove that $J$ is generated by the…

According to an old result of Albert and Muckenhoupt, the commutators in the endomorphism ring of a finite dimensional vector space are precisely the elements of trace zero. We replace the finite dimensional vector space with a complex of…

Given any commutative ring $R$, a commutator of two $n\times n$ matrices over $R$ has trace $0$. In this paper, we study the converse: whether every $n \times n$ trace $0$ matrix is a commutator. We show that if $R$ is a B\'{e}zout domain…

For a principal ideal domain $A$, the Latimer--MacDuffee correspondence sets up a bijection between the similarity classes of matrices in $\operatorname{M}_{n}(A)$ with irreducible characteristic polynomial $f(x)$ and the ideal classes of…

Let $S$ be a commutative ring with identity and $R$ a unitary subring of $S$. An ideal $I$ of $S$ is called an $R$-conductor ideal of $S$ if $I=\{x\in S\mid xS\subseteq V\}$ for some intermediate ring $V$ of $R$ and $S$. In this note we…

We extend Latimer and MacDuffee's theorem to a general commutative domain and apply this result to study similarity of matrices over integral rings of number fields. We also conjecture similarity over discrete valuation rings can be descent…

This article studies the equation $[A,B]^k = {\rm Id}_n$ for matrices over $\mathbb{C}$, characterizing the pairs $(k,n)$ for which solutions exist via a classical result of Lam and Leung on sums of roots of unity. The problem is next…

We study integrality over rings (all commutative in this paper) and over ideal semifiltrations (a generalization of integrality over ideals). We begin by reproving classical results, such as a version of the "faithful module" criterion for…

Let $R$ be a ring and let $n\ge 2$. We discuss the question of whether every element in the matrix ring $M_n(R)$ is a product of (additive) commutators $[x,y]=xy-yx$, for $x,y\in M_n(R)$. An example showing that this does not always hold,…

Let $X=(x_{ij})$ and $Y=(y_{ij})$ be generic $n$ by $n$ matrices and $Z=XY-YX$. Let $S=k[x_{11},...,x_{nn},y_{11},...,y_{nn}]$, where $k$ is a field, let $I$ be the ideal generated by the entries of $Z$ and let $R=S/I$. We give a conjecture…

Let $A$ be a $m\times m$ complex matrix with zero trace and let $\e>0$. Then there are $m\times m$ matrices $B$ and $C$ such that $A=[B,C]$ and $\|B\|\|C\|\le K_\e m^\e\|A\|$ where $K_\e$ depends only on $\e$. Moreover, the matrix $B$ can…

Let R be an associative ring.In the paper we study n-generalized commutators of rings and prove that if R is a noncommutative prime ring and n > 2, then every nonzero n-generalized Lie ideal of R contains a nonzero ideal. Therefore, if R is…

The theory of generalized inverses of matrices and operators is closely connected with projections, i.e., idempotent (bounded) linear transformations. We show that a similar situation occurs in any associative ring $\mathcal{R}$ with a unit…

We show that every matrix all of whose entries are in a fixed subgroup of the group of units of a commutative ring with identity is equivalent to a standard form. As a consequence, we improve the proof of Theorem 5 in D. Best, H.…

In this paper we consider reduced (non-normal) commutative noetherian rings $R$. With the help of conductor ideals and trace ideals of certain $R$-modules we deduce a criterion for a reflexive $R$-module to be closed under multiplication…