Let $\alpha $ be any radical of associative rings. A radical $\gamma $ is called $\alpha $-like if, for every $\alpha $-semisimple ring $A$, the polynomial ring $A[x] $ is $\gamma $-semisimple. In this paper we describe properties of $\alpha $-like radicals and show how they can be used to solve some open problems in radical theory.

A supernilpotent radical α is called bad if the class π(α) of all prime and α-semisimple rings consists of the one-element ring 0 only. We construct infinitely many bad supernilpotent radicals which form a generalization of Ryabukhin’s example of a supernilpotent nonspecial radical. We show that the family of all bad supernilpotent radicals is a sublattice of the lattice of all supernilpotent radicals and give examples of supernilpotent radicals that are not bad.

A radical ρ is called prime-like if for every prime ring A, the polynomial ring A[x] is ρ-semisimple. Let α be a radical satisfying the polynomial equation α(A[x])=(α(A))[x] for every ring A. A radical γ is called α-like if for every α-semisimple ring A, the polynomial ring A[x] is γ-semisimple. In this paper, we study properties of α-like radicals. We show that α-likeness is a generalization of prime-likeness and extend some results concerning prime-like radicals. This allows us easily to find distinct special radicals which coincide on simple rings and on polynomial rings, which answers a question put by Ferrero.

A radical γ is prime-like if, for every prime ring A, the polynomial ring A[x] is γ-semisimple. In this paper, we study properties of prime-like radicals. In particular, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a radical γ containing the prime radical β to be prime-like. This allows us to easily find distinct special radicals that coincide on simple rings and on polynomial rings, which answers a question put by Ferrero. It also allows us to reformulate a long-standing open problem of Gardner in terms of prime-like radicals.

Let ρ be a supernilpotent radical. Let ρ* be the class of all rings A such that either A is a simple ring in ρ or the factor ring A/I is in ρ for every nonzero ideal I of A and every minimal ideal M of A is in ρ. Let be the lower radical determined by ρ* and let ρφ denote the upper radical determined by the class of all subdirectly irreducible rings with ρ-semisimple hearts. Le Roux and Heyman proved that is a supernilpotent radical with and they asked whether if ρ is replaced by β, ℒ , 𝒩 or 𝒥 , where β, ℒ , 𝒩 and 𝒥 denote the Baer, the Levitzki, the Koethe and the Jacobson radical, respectively. In the present paper we will give a negative answer to this question by showing that if ρ is a supernilpotent radical whose semisimple class contains a nonzero nonsimple * -ring without minimal ideals, then is a nonspecial radical and consequently . We recall that a prime ring A is a * -ring if A/I is in β for every .

If a property P of ring elements satisfies conditions (a)-(d), then the largest homomorphically closed class having no non-zero P-element is a dual radical in the sense of Andrunakievič, and every dual radical can be obtained in this way. Also properties defined by polynomials are considered and as an application we get various characterizations of the Behrens radical.

It is proved that a regular essentially closed and weakly homomorphically closed proper subclass of rings consists of semiprime rings. A regular class M defines a supernilpotent upper radical if and only if M consists of semiprime rings and the essential cover Mk of M is contained in the semisimple class S U M. A regular essentially closed class M containing all semisimple prime rings, defines a special upper radical if and only if M satisfies condition (S): every M-ring is a subdirect sum of prime M-rings. Thus we obtained a characterization of semisimple classes of special radicals; a subclas S of rings is the semisimple class of a special radical if and only if S is regular, subdirectly closed, essentially closed, and satisfies condition (S). The results are valid for alternative rings too.