English

Is addition definable from multiplication and successor?

Rings and Algebras 2024-08-01 v3

Abstract

A map f ⁣:RSf\colon R\to S between (associative, unital, but not necessarily commutative) rings is a\emph{brachymorphism} if f(1+x)=1+f(x)f(1+x)=1+f(x) and f(xy)=f(x)f(y)f(xy)=f(x)f(y) whenever x,yRx,y\in R. We tackle the problem whether every brachymorphism is additive (i.e., f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y)f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y)), showing that in many contexts, including the following, the answer is positive: RR is finite (or, more generally, RR is left or right Artinian); RR is any ring of 2×22\times2 matrices over a commutative ring; RR is Engelian; every element of RR is a sum of π\pi-regular and central elements (this applies to π\pi-regular rings, Banach algebras, and power series rings); RR is the full matrix ring of order greater than 11 over any ring; RR is the monoid ring K[M]K[M] for a commutative ring KK and a π\pi-regular monoid MM; RR is the Weyl algebra A1(K)A_1(K) over a commutative ring KK with positive characteristic; ff is the power function xxnx\mapsto x^n over any ring; ff is the determinant function over any ring RR of n×nn\times n matrices, with n3n\geq3, over a commutative ring, such that if n>3n>3 then RR contains nn scalar matrices with non zero divisor differences.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.08364,
  title  = {Is addition definable from multiplication and successor?},
  author = {Friedrich Wehrung},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.08364},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:26:28.464Z