Algebra 611 Prelim Exercises on Ring Theory

1. Let R be a commutative ring with 1. Show that the intersection of all the prime ideals of R is precisely
the set of nilpotent elements of R .
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2. Let R = Z[ −2].
a) Show that R is a Euclidean domain under the usual complex norm.
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b) Show that the only positive integer x for which x + −2 is a cube in R is 5 .
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c) Show that −2 is an irreducible element of R .
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d) Show that if x and y are positive integer solutions of x2 + 2 = y 3 , then x + −2 and x − −2 are
relatively prime.
e) Deduce that the only solution in positive integers of x2 + 2 = y 3 is x = 5, y = 3 .

3. Let R be a PID.
a) Show that every nonzero prime ideal of R is maximal.
b) If S is an integral domain and φ : R → S is a surjective ring homomorphism, show that either φ is an
isomorphism or S is a field.
c) Show that if R[x] is a PID, then R is a field.

4. Let R be a commutative ring with 1 and let {Pi } be a chain of prime ideals in R . Prove that ∩Pi is
prime. Dedue that every prime ideal P of R contains a minimal prime ideal of R .

5. Let R be a commutative ring with 1 and let I be the intersection of all the maximal ideals of R . Prove
that a ∈ I if and only if 1 + ax is a unit in R for all x ∈ R .

6. Let R be a commutative ring with 1. If every proper ideal of R is prime, show that R is a field.

7. If φ is a ring automorphism of the reals, show φ is the identity. (Hint: show x > 0 implies φ(x) > 0 .)

8. Let R denote the real numbers. What familiar ring is isomorphic to R[x]/(x2 − x + 1) ? Prove your
assertion. Prove that Z[x]/(x2 + 1) is a field, and find its cardinality.

9. Let Qn be the space of all n -tuples of rational numbers, made into a ring by component-wise addition
and multiplication. Find all ring homomorphisms of Qn onto Q and all ring homomorphisms of Qn onto
Qn .
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10. Let R = Z + Z( −a), where a is an integer ≥ 3 . Show that 2R is not a prime ideal in R , but that 2
is an irreducible element of R . Is R a PID? a UFD? Why or why not?

11. IN R[x] , consider the set of polynomials f (x) for which f (2) = f 0 (2) = f ””(2) = 0 . Prove that this set
forms an ideal and find its monic generator. Do the polynomials such that f (2) = f 0 (3) = 0 form an ideal?
Prove or give a counterexample.

12. Let R be a PID, and let I, J be nonzero principal ideals of R . Show that IJ = I ∩ J if and only if
I + J = R.
13. Show that the ideal of Z[x] generated by 2 and x4 + x2 + 1 is maximal.

14. Let R1 = Fp [x]/(x2 − 3), R2 = Fp [x]/(x2 + 2) . Determine whether R1 and R2 are isomorphic for
p = 2, 5, 11 .

15. Let F be one of the following fields R, Q, C, F9 . Let I ⊆ F [x] be the ideal generated by x4 + 2x − 2 .
For which choices of F is the ring F [x]/I a field?

16. Let R = C([0, 1]) be the ring of continuous real-valued functions on the interval [0, 1] with the usual
definition of sum and product of functions from calculus. Show that f ∈ R is a zero divisor if and only if f
is not identically zero and {x | f (x) = 0} contains an open interval. What are the idempotents of this ring?
What are the nilpotents? What are the units?

17. Let R = Z/2Z and let G = Z2 , the multiplicative group of order 2 . Find a quotient of a polynomial
ring which is isomorphic to the group ring R[G].

18. Let G be a finite elementary 2-group (i.e. a direct product of finitely many copies of Z2 , the cyclic
group of order 2).
a) Show that Z[G] has zero divisors.
b) Show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between ring homomorphisms ψ : Z[G] → Z and group
homomorphisms χ : G → {±1}.
c) The augmentation mapping is the homomorphism Z[G] → Z defined by sending all g ∈ G to 1 . Let I
be the kernel of this homomorphism. What are all the maximal ideals containing I ?
d) Let P be a minimal prime ideal of Z[G] . You may assume that P ∩ Z = {0} . Let M be the maximal
ideal from (d) that contains I and 2. Show that P ⊆ M .

19. Is x4 + 1 irreducible over the field of real numbers? The field of rational numbers? A field with 16
elements?

20. Let F be a field. Outline the proof that F [x] is a PID. Let R = {f (x) ∈ F [x] | f 0 (0) = 0} . Show that
R is a subring of F [x] but that R is not a UFD. Explicitly demonstrate an ideal that is not principal.

21. Let
√ R be a commutative ring with identity, and let A , B be ideals of R . The radical of A is defined
to be A = {r ∈ R | rn ∈ A for some n ≥ 0} .
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a) Show A is an ideal of R .
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b) Show that if A + B = R , then A + B = R .

22. Let R be a ring. Show that the two-sided ideals of the ring Mn (R) of n × n matrices over R are
precisely the subsets of the form Mn (I) = {(aij ) | aij ∈ I ∀i, j} , where I is some ideal of R .
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23. Prove that the ring Z[ −2] is Euclidean. Use this to find all integer solutikons to the equation
y 2 + 2 = x3 .

24. Let R be a commutative ring with 1 . Show that the intersection of all prime ideals of R is precisely
the set of nilpotent elements of R .