Rings

CHAPTER 11
 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter we will study sets that are called
rings. Examples of rings will be presented,
some of which are very familiar sets. Later,
properties of rings will be examined, and we
will observe that some properties that hold in
the familiar rings do not necessarily hold in all
rings. Other topics include mappings between
rings, subsets of rings called ideals, and some
special types of rings.
 11.1 RINGS
DEFINITION 11.1: A non-empty set is said to form a ring with respect
to the binary operations addition (+) and multiplication (·) provided,
for arbitrary , the following properties hold:
P1: (a + b)+ c = a + (b + c) (Associative Law of addition)
P2: a + b = b + a (Commutative Law of addition)
P3: There exists such that a + (Existence of an additive
z = a. identity (zero))
P4: For each a there exists —a (Existence of additive inverses)
such that a + (—a) = z
P5: (a · b)· c = a · (b · c) (Associative Law of
multiplication)
P6: a (b + c) = a · b + a · c (Distributive Laws)
P7: (b + c)a = b · a + c · a
 EXAMPLE 1. Since the properties enumerated above are only a
partial list of the properties common to under ordinary addition and
multiplication, it follows that these systems are examples of rings.
 EXAMPLE 2. The set is a ring with respect to addition and
multiplication on To prove this, we first show that S is closed with
respect to these operations. We have, for ,
,

And

Next, we note that hold since S is a subset of the ring . Finally, satisfies , and for
each there exists which satisfies . Thus, S has all of the required properties of a
ring.
EXAMPLE 3.
(i) The set S = {a, b} with addition and multiplication defined by the tables

+ a b · a b
a a b and a a a
b b a b a b

is a ring.
(ii) The set T = {a, b, c, d} with addition and multiplication defined by

+ a b c d · a b c d
a a b c d a a a a a
b b a d c and b a b a b
c c d a b c a c a c
d d c b a d a d a d

is a ring.
In Examples 1 and 2 the binary operations on the rings (the
ring operations) coincide with ordinary addition and
multiplication on the various number systems involved; in
Example 3, the ring operations have no meaning beyond
given in the tables. In this example there can be no
confusion in using familiar symbols to denote ring
operations. However, when there is the possibility of
confusion, we shall use and to indicate the ring operations.
EXAMPLE 4. Consider the set of rational numbers . Clearly
addition and multiplication defined by

and for all

Where and are ordinary addition and multiplication on

rational numbers, are binary operations on . Now the fact
that hold is immediate; also holds with . We leave it for the
reader to show that do not hold and so is not a ring with
respect to and .
11.2 PROPERTIES OF RINGS
The elementary properties of rings are analogous to those properties of Z which
do not depend upon either the commutative law of multiplication or the existence
of a multiplicative identity element. We call attention here to some of these
properties:
(i) Every ring is an abelian additive group
(ii) There exists a unique additive identity element z, (the zero of the ring)
(iii) Each element has a unique additive inverse, (the negative of that element).
(iv) The Cancellation Law for addition holds.
(v) for all a,b of the ring.
(vi)
(vii)
 11.3 SUBRINGS
 DEFINITION 11.2: Let be a ring. A non-empty subset of the set ,
which is itself a ring with respect to the binary operations on , is called
a subring of .
Note: When is a subring of a ring , it is evident that is a subgroup of
the additive group .
EXAMPLE 5.
(a) From Example 1 it follows that is a subring of the rings ; that is a
subring of , ; and is a subring of .
(b) In Example 2, is a subring of .
(c) In example 3(b), are subrings of . Why is not a subring of ?
DEFINITION 11.3: The subrings and itself of a ring are called
improper, other subrings, if any, of are called proper.

We leave for the reader the proof of

• Theorem I. Let be a ring and be a proper subset of the set .

Then is a subring of if and only if

(a) is closed with respect to the ring operations.

(b) For each , we have .

 11.4 TYPES OF RINGS
 DEFINITION 11.4: A ring for which multiplication is
commutative is called a commutative ring.
Example 6. The rings of Examples 1, 2, 3(a) are commutative;
the ring of example 3(b) is non-commutative, i.e., , but .
 DEFINITION 11.5: A ring having a multiplicative identity
element (unit element or unity) is called a ring with identity
element or ring with unity.
EXAMPLE 7. For each of the rings of Examples 1 and 2, the
unity is 1. The unity of the ring of Example 3(a) is b; the ring of
Example 3(b) has no unity.
Let be a ring of unity . Then u is its own multiplicative
inverse but other non-zero elements of may or may not
have multiplicative inverses. Multiplicative inverses, when
they exist, are always unique.

EXAMPLE 8.
(a) The ring of Problem 11.1 is a non-commutative ring without
unity.
(b) The ring of Problem 11.2 is a commutative ring with unity u = h.
Here the non-zero elements have no multiplicative inverses; the
inverses of are , respectively.
(c) The ring of Problem 11.3 has as unity u =(1, 0, 0, 1). (Show this.)
Since (1, 0, 1, 0)(0, 0, 0, 1)=(0, 0, 0, 0), while (0, 0, 0, 1)(1, 0, 1,
0)=(0, 0, 1, 0), the ring is non-commutative. The existence of
multiplicative inverses is discussed in Problem 11.5.
 11.5 CHARACTERISTIC
 DEFINITION 11.6: Let be a ring with zero element z and
suppose that there exists a positive integer n such that for
every . The smallest such positive integer n is called the
characteristic of . If no such integer exists, is said to have
characteristic zero.

 EXAMPLE 9.
(a) The rings have characteristic zero since for these rings .
(b) In Problem 11.1 we have , the zero of the ring, and the
characteristic of the ring is two.
(c) The ring of Problem 11.2 has characteristic four.
 11.6 DIVISORS OF ZERO
 DEFINITION 11.7: Let be a ring with zero element z. An
element of is called a divisor of zero if there exists an
element of such that or .
 EXAMPLE 10.
(a) The rings have no divisors of zero, that is, each system
always implies or .
(b) For the ring of Problem 11.3, we have seen in Example
8(c) that (1, 0, 1, 0) and (0, 0, 0, 1) are divisors of zero.
(c) The ring of Problem 11.2 has divisors of zero since . Find
all divisors of zero for this ring.
 11.7 HOMOMORPHISMS AND
ISOMORPHISMS
 DEFINITION 11.8: A homomorphism (isomorphism) of the additive
group of a ring into (onto) the additive group of a ring which also
preserves the second operation, multiplication, is called a
homomorphism (isomorphism) of into (onto) .
 EXAMPLE 11. Consider the ring with addition and multiplication tables.

and
and the rings with addition and multiplication tables

And

The one-to-one mapping

carries onto (also onto ) and at the same time preserves all binary
operations; for example,

, etc:

Thus, and are isomorphic rings.

Using the isomorphic rings and of Example 11, it is easy to verify
Theorem II. In any isomorphism of a ring onto a ring
(a) If z is the zero of and is the zero of , we have .
(b)If , then .
(c) If u is the unity of and u is the unity of , we have .
(d)If is a commutative ring, so also is .
 11.8 IDEALS
 DEFINITION 11.9: Let be a ring with zero element z. A subgroup of ,
having the property for all and , is called a left (right) ideal in .
Clearly, and itself are both left and right ideals in ; they are called
improper left (right) ideals in . All other left (right) ideals in , if any, are
called proper.
 DEFINITION 11.10: A subgroup of of which is both a left and right
ideal in , that is, for all and both and , is called an ideal (invariant
subring) in .
Clearly, every left (right) ideal in a commutative ring is an ideal in .
 DEFINITION 11.11: For every ring , the ideals and itself are called
improper ideals in ; any other ideals in are called proper.
A ring having no proper ideals is called a simple ring.
EXAMPLE 12.
(a) For the ring of Problem 11.1, { is a proper right ideal in (examine the
first four rows of the multiplication table), but not a left ideal (examine
the first four columns of the same table). The proper ideals in are {,
and {.
(b) In the non-commutative ring , the subgroup of all integral multiples of
any integer is an ideal in .
(c) For every fixed , the subgroup is a left ideal in the ring of Problem
11.3 and is a right ideal in since, for every ,

and

Example 12(b) illustrates.

Theorem III. If is an arbitrary element of a commutative ring , then is
an ideal in .

In Example 12(a), each element x of the left ideal {has the property that
it is an element of
for which , the zero element of S, for every . This illustrates

Theorem IV. Let be a ring with zero element z; then

for all
is a left (right) ideal in .
Let be any collection of ideals in a ring and define . Since each ideal of
the collection is an abelian additive group, so also, by Theorem X,
Chapter 9, is .
Moreover, for any and , the product and belong to
each ideal of the collection and, hence, to . We have
proved
Theorem V. The intersection of any collection of
ideals in a ring is an ideal in the ring.
In Problem 11.10, we prove
Theorem VI. In any homomorphism of a ring onto
another ring the set S of elements of which are
mapped on , the zero element of , is an ideal in .
EXAMPLE 13. Consider the ring of Problem 11.8
(a) The set of residue classes modulo 2 of is . (Note that .) From
the operation tables for addition and multiplication modulo 2, it will be found that
is a commutative ring with
unity; also, has divisors of zero although does not.
The mapping is a homomorphism in which , an ideal in , is mapped on [0], the
zero element of H.
(b) The set of residue classes modulo 3 of G is

It can be shown as in (a) that K is a commutative ring with unity but is without
divisors of zero.
 11.9 PRINCIPAL IDEALS
 DEFINITION 11.12: Let be a ring and be a right ideal in with the
further property
is some fixed element of
We shall then call a principal right ideal inand say that it is generated by
the element a of K.
Principal left ideals and principal ideals are defined analogously.
EXAMPLE 14.
(a) In the ring S of Problem 11.1, the subring { is a principal right ideal in S
generated by the element g (see the row of the multiplication table
opposite g). Since for every (see the column of the multiplication table
headed g), { is not a principal left ideal and, hence, not a principal ideal
in S.
(b) In the commutative ring S of Problem 11.2, the ideal {in S is a principal
ideal and may be thought of as generated by either b or f.
(c) In the ring S of Problem 11.1, the right ideal {in S is not a
principal right ideal since it cannot be generated by any one of
its elements
(d) For any is a principal ideal in .

Every ring has at least one principal ideal, namely, the

null ideal { where z is the zero element of . Every ring with
unity has at least two principal ideals, namely, { and the ideal
generated by the unity.
DEFINITION 11.13: Let be a commutative ring. If
every ideal in is a principal ideal, we shall call a
principal ideal ring. For example, consider any ideal
in the ring of integers . If so also is –a. Then contains
positive integers and, since is well ordered, contains
a least positive integer, say, e. For any , we have by
the Division Algorithm of Chapter 5, section 5.3,

Now ; hence, and . Thus, is a principal ideal in and

we have proved
The ring is a principal ideal ring.
11.10 PRIME AND MAXIMAL
IDEALS
 DEFINITION 11.14: An ideal in a commutative ring is said to
be a prime ideal if, for arbitrary element of , the or fact that
implies either
 EXAMPLE 15. In the ring ,

(a) The ideal , also written as , is a prime ideal since if either or

hence, either or
(b) The ideal } or is not a prime ideal since, for example, 28 = 4
7 , but neither 4 nor 7 is in .
Example 15 illustrates
Theorem VII. In the ring a proper ideal is prime ideal if and
only if m is a prime integer.
DEFINITION 11.15: A proper ideal in a
commutative ring is called maximal if there
exists no proper ideal in which properly
contains .
EXAMPLE 16.
(a)The ideal of Example 15 is a maximal ideal
in since the only ideal in which properly
contains is itself.
(b)The ideal K of Example 15 is not a maximal
ideal in since K is properly contained in ,
which, in turn, is properly contained in .
11.11 QUOTIENT RINGS
 Since the additive group of a ring is abelian, all of its subgroups are invariant
subgroups. Thus, any ideal in the ring is an invariant subgroup of the additive group
and the quotient group is the set of all distinct cosets of in . (Note: The use of
instead of the familiar for a coset is in a sense unnecessary since, by definition, and
the operation here is addition. Nevertheless, we shall use it.) In the section titled
Quotient Groups in Chapter 9, addition (+) on the cosets (of an additive group) was
well defined by

We now define multiplication () on the cosets by

and establish that it too is well defined. For this purpose, suppose and are the
elements of the additive group such that and are other representations of and ,
respectively. From
EXAMPLE 17. Consider the ideal of the ring and the
quotient group . It is clear that the elements of are simply the
residue classes of and, thus, constitute a ring with respect to
addition and multiplication modulo 3.
Example 17 illustrates

Theorem VIII. If is an ideal in a ring , the quotient group is a

ring with respect to addition and multiplication of cosets
(residue classes) as defined above.
Note: It is customary to designate this ring by and to call it the
quotient or factor ring of relative to .
From the definition of addition and multiplication of residue
classes, it follows that
(a) The mapping is a homomorphism of onto .
(b) is the zero element of the ring .
(c) If is a commutative ring, so also is .
(d) If has a unity element u, so also has , namely u + .
(e) If is without divisors of zero, may or may not have
divisors of zero. For, while

indicates , it does not necessarily imply either a or b .

11.12 EUCLIDEAN RINGS
 In the next chapter we shall be concerned with
various types of rings, for example, commutative
rings, rings with unity, rings without divisors of
zero, commutative rings with unity, ... obtained
by adding to the basic properties of a ring one or
more other properties (see Section 7.8) of . There
are other types of rings, and we end this chapter
with a brief study of one of them.
DEFINITION 11.16: By a Euclidean ring is meant:
Any commutative ring having the property that to each a
non-negative integer can be assigned such that
(i) if and only if the zero element of .
(ii) when .
(iii) For every and ,

EXAMPLE 18. is a Euclidean ring. This follows easily by using

for every x .
There follow
Theorem IX. Every Euclidean ring R is a principal ideal ring.
Theorem X. Every Euclidean ring has a unity.