It is well-known that an element of a commutative ring with identity is nilpotent if, and only if , it lies in every prime ideal of the ring. A modification of this fact is amenable to a very simple proof mining analysis. We formulate a quantitative version of this modification and obtain an explicit bound. We present an application. This proof mining analysis is the leitmotif for some comments and observations on the methodology of computational extraction. In particular, we emphasize that the formulation of quantitative versions of ordinary mathematical theorems is of independent interest from proof mining metatheorems.

We prove first-order definability of the prime subring inside polynomial rings, whose coefficient rings are (commutative unital) reduced and indecomposable. This is achieved by means of a uniform formula in the language of rings with signature $(0,1,+,\cdot )$. In the characteristic zero case, the claim implies that the full theory is undecidable, for rings of the referred type. This extends a series of results by Raphael Robinson, holding for certain polynomial integral domains, to a more general class.

In this paper, we will prove that any $\mathbb{A}^{3}$-form over a field $k$ of characteristic zero is trivial provided it has a locally nilpotent derivation satisfying certain properties. We will also show that the result of Kambayashi on the triviality of separable $\mathbb{A}^{2}$-forms over a field $k$ extends to $\mathbb{A}^{2}$-forms over any one-dimensional Noetherian domain containing $\mathbb{Q}$.

For a commutative ring $R$, a polynomial$f\,\in \,R[x]$ is called separable if $R[x]/f$ is a separable $R$-algebra. We derive formulae for the number of separable polynomials when $R\,=\,\mathbb{Z}/n$, extending a result of L. Carlitz. For instance, we show that the number of polynomials in $\mathbb{Z}/n[x]$ that are separable is $\phi (n){{n}^{d}}{{\prod }_{i}}(1\,-\,p_{i}^{-d})$, where $n\,=\,\prod p_{i}^{{{k}_{i}}}$ is the prime factorisation of $n$ and $\phi $ is Euler’s totient function.

Jean-Louis Loday introduced a class of symmetric operads generated by one bilinear operation subject to one relation making each left-normed product of three elements equal to a linear combination of right-normed products: $({{a}_{1}}{{a}_{2}}){{a}_{3}}\,=\,\sum{{{_{\sigma }}_{\in {{s}_{3}}}}\,}{{x}_{\sigma }}\,{{a}_{\sigma \,(1)}}({{a}_{\sigma (2)\,}}{{a}_{\sigma (3)}})$. Such an operad is called a parametrized one-relation operad. For a particular choice of parameters $\{{{x}_{\sigma }}\}$, this operad is said to be regular if each of its components is the regular representation of the symmetric group; equivalently, the corresponding free algebra on a vector space $V$ is, as a graded vector space, isomorphic to the tensor algebra of $V$. We classify, over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, all regular parametrized one-relation operads. In fact, we prove that each such operad is isomorphic to one of the following five operads: the left-nilpotent operad defined by the relation $(({{a}_{1}}{{a}_{2}}){{a}_{3}})\,=\,0$, the associative operad, the Leibniz operad, the dual Leibniz (Zinbiel) operad, and the Poisson operad. Our computational methods combine linear algebra over polynomial rings, representation theory of the symmetric group, and Gröbner bases for determinantal ideals and their radicals.

Let $R$ be an associative ring with identity. First we prove some results about zero-divisor graphs of reversible rings. Then we study the zero-divisors of the skew power series ring $R\left[\!\left[ x;\,\alpha \right]\!\right]$, whenever $R$ is reversible $\alpha$-compatible. Moreover, we compare the diameter and girth of the zero-divisor graphs of $\Gamma \left( R \right),\,\Gamma \left( R[x;\,\alpha ,\,\delta ] \right)$, and $\Gamma \left( R\left[\!\left[ x;\,\alpha \right]\!\right] \right)$, when $R$ is reversible and $\left( \alpha ,\,\delta \right)$-compatible.

Let $R\subset S$ be an extension of integral domains, with $R^{\ast }$ the integral closure of $R$ in $S$ . We study the set of intermediate rings between $R$ and $S$ . We establish several necessary and sufficient conditions for which every ring contained between $R$ and $S$ compares with $R^{\ast }$ under inclusion. This answers a key question that figured in the work of Gilmer and Heinzer [‘Intersections of quotient rings of an integral domain’, J. Math. Kyoto Univ.7 (1967), 133–150].

Let $k$ be a field and $\mathbb{V}$ the affine threefold in $\mathbb{A}^4_k$ defined by $x^m y=F(x, z, t)$, $m \ge 2$. In this paper, we show that $\mathbb{V} \cong \mathbb{A}^3_k$ if and only if $f(z, t): = F(0, z, t)$ is a coordinate of $k[z, t]$. In particular, when $k$ is a field of positive characteristic and $f$ defines a non-trivial line in the affine plane $\mathbb{A}^2_k$ (we shall call such a $\mathbb{V}$ as an Asanuma threefold), then $\mathbb{V}\ncong \mathbb{A}^3_k$ although $\mathbb{V} \times \mathbb{A}^1_k \cong \mathbb{A}^4_k$, thereby providing a family of counter-examples to Zariski’s cancellation conjecture for the affine 3-space in positive characteristic. Our main result also proves a special case of the embedding conjecture of Abhyankar–Sathaye in arbitrary characteristic.

An $E$-ring is a unital ring $R$ such that every endomorphism of the underlying abelian group ${{R}^{+}}$ is multiplication by some ring element. The existence of almost-free $E$-rings of cardinality greater than ${{2}^{{{\aleph }_{0}}}}$ is undecidable in ZFC. While they exist in Gödel's universe, they do not exist in other models of set theory. For a regular cardinal ${{\aleph }_{1}}\le \text{ }\!\!\lambda\!\!\text{ }\le {{2}^{{{\aleph }_{0}}}}$ we construct $E$-rings of cardinality $\lambda $ in ZFC which have ${{\aleph }_{1}}$-free additive structure. For $\text{ }\!\!\lambda\!\!\text{ }={{\aleph }_{1}}$ we therefore obtain the existence of almost-free $E$-rings of cardinality ${{\aleph }_{1}}$ in ZFC.

If $n$ and $m$ are positive integers, necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the existence of a finite commutative ring $R$ with exactly $n$ elements and exactly $m$ prime ideals. Next, assuming the Axiom of Choice, it is proved that if $R$ is a commutative ring and $T$ is a commutative $R$-algebra which is generated by a set $I$, then each chain of prime ideals of $T$ lying over the same prime ideal of $R$ has at most ${{2}^{\left| I \right|}}$ elements. A polynomial ring example shows that the preceding result is best-possible.

We show that for any field k, separable A1-forms over commutative k-algebras are trivial.

Let $R$ be a one-dimensional locally analytically irreducible Noetherian domain with finite residue fields. In this note it is shown that if $I$ is a finitely generated ideal of the ring $\text{Int(}R)$ of integer-valued polynomials such that for each $\text{x}\,\in \,R$ the ideal $I\text{(}x\text{)}=\{f(x)|f\in I\}$ is strongly $\text{n}$-generated, $n\,\ge \,2$, then $I$ is $\text{n}$-generated, and some variations of this result.

It is proved that if r* is the weak normalization of an integral domain r, then the weak normalization of the power series ring r[[x1,....xn]] is contained in R*[[X1,....Xn]]. Consequently, if R is a weakly normal integral domain, then R[[X1,....Xn]] is also weakly normal.

Soit A un anneau intègre de corps des fractions K et soit A[X]sub = {P(X) ∈ K[X] ; P(ℤ) ⊂ A} l'anneau des polynômes à valeurs entières sur A. Lorsque la caractéristique de A est nulle, le A-module A[X]sub est contenu dans le A-module {P(X) ∊ K[X] ; P(Z) ⊂ A] engendré par les polynômes binomiaux Bn(X) – X(X – 1) (X – n + 1)/n′. Nous caractérisons ici les anneaux de Dedekind A pour lesquels ces A-modules sont égaux.

Puis nous étudions la situation plus générale dans laquelle A[X]sub = {P(X) ∈ K[X] ; P(A0) ⊂ A} OÙ A0 désigne un anneau de Dedekind contenu dans A. Ce sont alors des polynômes généralisant les binômes de Fermat FP(X) – (Xq – X)/p qui jouent le rôle central.

Finite extensions of complex commutative Banach algebras are naturally related to corresponding finite covering maps between the carrier spaces for the algebras. In the case of function rings, the finite extensions are induced by the corresponding finite covering maps, and the topological properties of the coverings are strongly reflected in the algebraic properties of the extensions and conversely. Of particular interest to us is the class of finite covering maps for which the induced extensions of function rings admit primitive generators. This is exactly the class of polynomial covering maps and the extensions are algebraic extensions defined by the underlying Weierstrass polynomials.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a suitable Galois theory for finite extensions of function rings induced by finite covering maps and to apply it in the case of Weierstrass polynomials and polynomial covering maps.

We give a simple construction of non-Noetherian Hilbert domains whose maximal ideals are all finitely generated. Such domains we call unruly Hilbert domains.

It is proved that if u is an element of a faithful algebra over a commutative ring R, then u satisfies a polynomial over R which has unit content if and only if the extension R ⊂ R[u] has the imcomparability property. Applications include new proofs of results of Gilmer-Hoffmann and Papick, as well as a characterization of the P-extensions introduced by Gilmer and Hoffmann.

All rings have an identity, all homomorphisms map identities to identities, all homomorphisms on algebras over fields are algebra homomorphisms. A ring R is a quotient-embeddable ring (a QE-ring) if for any proper ideal a of R there is an endomorphism of R whose kernel is the ideal a. A QE-ring U is a receptor of R if for any proper ideal a of R there is a homomorphism from R to U whose kernel is the ideal a.

Theorem. A ring R has a receptor if and only if it is a K-algebra over some field K contained in the center of R. If R is a commutative K-algebra of this type, then it has a commutative receptor.