Normal pairs of noncommutative rings

Abstract

This paper extends the concept of a normal pair from commutative ring theory to the context of a pair of (associative unital) rings. This is done by using the notion of integrality introduced by Atterton. It is shown that if $$R \subseteq S$$ are rings and $$D=(d_{ij})$$ is an $$n\times n$$ matrix with entries in S, then D is integral (in the sense of Atterton) over the full ring of $$n\times n$$ matrices with entries in R if and only if each $$d_{ij}$$ is integral over R. If $$R \subseteq S$$ are rings with corresponding full rings of $$n\times n$$ matrices $$R_n$$ and $$S_n$$, then $$(R_n,S_n)$$ is a normal pair if and only if (R, S) is a normal pair. Examples are given of a pair $$(\Lambda , \Gamma )$$ of noncommutative (in fact, full matrix) rings such that $$\Lambda \subset \Gamma $$ is (resp., is not) a minimal ring extension; it can be further arranged that $$(\Lambda , \Gamma )$$ is a normal pair or that $$\Lambda \subset \Gamma $$ is an integral extension.