Von Neumann regular matrices revisited

Abstract

We give a constructive sufficient condition for a matrix over a commutative ring to be von Neumann regular, and we show that it is also necessary over local rings. Specifically, we prove that a matrix A over a local commutative ring is von Neumann regular if and only if A has an invertible -submatrix if and only if the determinantal rank and the McCoy rank of A coincide. We deduce consequences to (products of local) commutative rings, and we determine the number of von Neumann regular matrices over some finite rings of residue classes and group algebras.