Rings in Which the Annihilator of an Ideal Is Pure

Abstract

A ring R is a left AIP-ring if the left annihilator of any ideal of R is pure as a left ideal. Equivalently, R is a left AIP-ring if R modulo the left annihilator of any ideal is flat. This class of rings includes both right PP-rings and right p.q.-Baer rings (and hence the biregular rings) and is closed under direct products and forming upper triangular matrix rings. It is shown that, unlike the Baer or right PP conditions, the AIP property is inherited by polynomial extensions and has the advantage that it is a Morita invariant property. We also give a complete characterization of a class of AIP-rings which have a sheaf representation. Connections to related classes of rings are investigated and several examples and counterexamples are included to illustrate and delimit the theory.