Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2009
A ring R is π-regular (periodic) if for each element x of R there is n = n(x) SO that xn = xn.a.xn (xn = xn.1.xn) (a depending on x). Let R be an algebraic algebra over a commutative ring F With identity. In this paper we prove that if every π-regular image of the ring F is periodic, then R is periodic. This result applies in particular to the algebraic rings R (over the integers) considered by Drazin and to the algebraic algebras R over algebraically prime fields. It extends a result of Drazin on torsin-free algebraic rings and a generalization by this author of Drazin's result.