McCoy rings and zero-divisors

Abstract

We investigate relations between the McCoy property and other standard ring theoretic properties. For example, we prove that the McCoy property does not pass to power series rings. We also classify how the McCoy property behaves under direct products and direct sums. We prove that McCoy rings with 1 are Dedekind finite, but not necessarily Abelian. In the other direction, we prove that duo rings, and many semi-commutative rings, are McCoy. Degree variations are defined, studied, and classified. The McCoy property is shown to behave poorly with respect to Morita equivalence and (infinite) matrix constructions.