In mathematics, more specifically abstract algebra, a finite ring is a ring that has a finite number of elements. Every finite field is an example of a finite ring, and the additive part of every finite ring is an example of an abelian finite group, but the concept of finite rings in their own right has a more recent history.
Although rings have more structure than groups do, the theory of finite rings is simpler than that of finite groups. For instance, the classification of finite simple groups was one of the major breakthroughs of 20th century mathematics, its proof spanning thousands of journal pages. On the other hand, it has been known since 1907 that any finite simple ring is isomorphic to the ring – the n-by-n matrices over a finite field of order q (as a consequence of Wedderburn's theorems, described below).
The number of rings with m elements, for m a natural number, is listed under OEIS: A027623 in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.
The theory of finite fields is perhaps the most important aspect of finite ring theory due to its intimate connections with algebraic geometry, Galois theory and number theory. An important, but fairly old aspect of the theory is the classification of finite fields: [1]
Despite the classification, finite fields are still an active area of research, including recent results on the Kakeya conjecture and open problems regarding the size of smallest primitive roots (in number theory).
A finite field F may be used to build a vector space of n-dimensions over F. The matrix ring A of n × n matrices with elements from F is used in Galois geometry, with the projective linear group serving as the multiplicative group of A.
Wedderburn's little theorem asserts that any finite division ring is necessarily commutative:
Nathan Jacobson later discovered yet another condition which guarantees commutativity of a ring: if for every element r of R there exists an integer n > 1 such that r n = r, then R is commutative. [2] More general conditions that imply commutativity of a ring are also known. [3]
Yet another theorem by Wedderburn has, as its consequence, a result demonstrating that the theory of finite simple rings is relatively straightforward in nature. More specifically, any finite simple ring is isomorphic to the ring , the n-by-n matrices over a finite field of order q. This follows from two theorems of Joseph Wedderburn established in 1905 and 1907 (one of which is Wedderburn's little theorem).
(Warning: the enumerations in this section include rings that do not necessarily have a multiplicative identity, sometimes called rngs.) In 1964 David Singmaster proposed the following problem in the American Mathematical Monthly: "(1) What is the order of the smallest non-trivial ring with identity which is not a field? Find two such rings with this minimal order. Are there more? (2) How many rings of order four are there?" One can find the solution by D.M. Bloom in a two-page proof [4] that there are eleven rings of order 4, four of which have a multiplicative identity. Indeed, four-element rings introduce the complexity of the subject. There are three rings over the cyclic group C4 and eight rings over the Klein four-group. There is an interesting display of the discriminatory tools (nilpotents, zero-divisors, idempotents, and left- and right-identities) in Gregory Dresden's lecture notes. [5]
The occurrence of non-commutativity in finite rings was described in ( Eldridge 1968 ) in two theorems: If the order m of a finite ring with 1 has a cube-free factorization, then it is commutative. And if a non-commutative finite ring with 1 has the order of a prime cubed, then the ring is isomorphic to the upper triangular 2 × 2 matrix ring over the Galois field of the prime. The study of rings of order the cube of a prime was further developed in ( Raghavendran 1969 ) and ( Gilmer & Mott 1973 ). Next Flor and Wessenbauer (1975) made improvements on the cube-of-a-prime case. Definitive work on the isomorphism classes came with ( Antipkin & Elizarov 1982 ) proving that for p > 2, the number of classes is 3p + 50.
There are earlier references in the topic of finite rings, such as Robert Ballieu [6] and Scorza. [7]
These are a few of the facts that are known about the number of finite rings (not necessarily with unity) of a given order (suppose p and q represent distinct prime numbers):
The number of rings with n elements are (with a(0) = 1)
In mathematics, an abelian group, also called a commutative group, is a group in which the result of applying the group operation to two group elements does not depend on the order in which they are written. That is, the group operation is commutative. With addition as an operation, the integers and the real numbers form abelian groups, and the concept of an abelian group may be viewed as a generalization of these examples. Abelian groups are named after early 19th century mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
In mathematics, a field is a set on which addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are defined and behave as the corresponding operations on rational and real numbers do. A field is thus a fundamental algebraic structure which is widely used in algebra, number theory, and many other areas of mathematics.
In mathematics, a finite field or Galois field is a field that contains a finite number of elements. As with any field, a finite field is a set on which the operations of multiplication, addition, subtraction and division are defined and satisfy certain basic rules. The most common examples of finite fields are given by the integers mod p when p is a prime number.
In mathematics, rings are algebraic structures that generalize fields: multiplication need not be commutative and multiplicative inverses need not exist. In other words, a ring is a set equipped with two binary operations satisfying properties analogous to those of addition and multiplication of integers. Ring elements may be numbers such as integers or complex numbers, but they may also be non-numerical objects such as polynomials, square matrices, functions, and power series.
In group theory, a branch of abstract algebra in pure mathematics, a cyclic group or monogenous group is a group, denoted Cn, that is generated by a single element. That is, it is a set of invertible elements with a single associative binary operation, and it contains an element g such that every other element of the group may be obtained by repeatedly applying the group operation to g or its inverse. Each element can be written as an integer power of g in multiplicative notation, or as an integer multiple of g in additive notation. This element g is called a generator of the group.
In mathematics, a Noetherian ring is a ring that satisfies the ascending chain condition on left and right ideals; if the chain condition is satisfied only for left ideals or for right ideals, then the ring is said left-Noetherian or right-Noetherian respectively. That is, every increasing sequence of left ideals has a largest element; that is, there exists an n such that:
In mathematics, a commutative ring is a ring in which the multiplication operation is commutative. The study of commutative rings is called commutative algebra. Complementarily, noncommutative algebra is the study of ring properties that are not specific to commutative rings. This distinction results from the high number of fundamental properties of commutative rings that do not extend to noncommutative rings.
In number theory, the ideal class group of an algebraic number field K is the quotient group JK /PK where JK is the group of fractional ideals of the ring of integers of K, and PK is its subgroup of principal ideals. The class group is a measure of the extent to which unique factorization fails in the ring of integers of K. The order of the group, which is finite, is called the class number of K.
Algebraic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses the techniques of abstract algebra to study the integers, rational numbers, and their generalizations. Number-theoretic questions are expressed in terms of properties of algebraic objects such as algebraic number fields and their rings of integers, finite fields, and function fields. These properties, such as whether a ring admits unique factorization, the behavior of ideals, and the Galois groups of fields, can resolve questions of primary importance in number theory, like the existence of solutions to Diophantine equations.
In algebra, ring theory is the study of rings—algebraic structures in which addition and multiplication are defined and have similar properties to those operations defined for the integers. Ring theory studies the structure of rings, their representations, or, in different language, modules, special classes of rings, as well as an array of properties that proved to be of interest both within the theory itself and for its applications, such as homological properties and polynomial identities.
Ring theory is the branch of mathematics in which rings are studied: that is, structures supporting both an addition and a multiplication operation. This is a glossary of some terms of the subject.
In algebra, a unit or invertible element of a ring is an invertible element for the multiplication of the ring. That is, an element u of a ring R is a unit if there exists v in R such that
Field theory is the branch of mathematics in which fields are studied. This is a glossary of some terms of the subject.
In abstract algebra, a finite group is a group whose underlying set is finite. Finite groups often arise when considering symmetry of mathematical or physical objects, when those objects admit just a finite number of structure-preserving transformations. Important examples of finite groups include cyclic groups and permutation groups.
In mathematics, the Brauer group of a field K is an abelian group whose elements are Morita equivalence classes of central simple algebras over K, with addition given by the tensor product of algebras. It was defined by the algebraist Richard Brauer.
In ring theory and related areas of mathematics a central simple algebra (CSA) over a field K is a finite-dimensional associative K-algebraA which is simple, and for which the center is exactly K.
Chebotarev's density theorem in algebraic number theory describes statistically the splitting of primes in a given Galois extension K of the field of rational numbers. Generally speaking, a prime integer will factor into several ideal primes in the ring of algebraic integers of K. There are only finitely many patterns of splitting that may occur. Although the full description of the splitting of every prime p in a general Galois extension is a major unsolved problem, the Chebotarev density theorem says that the frequency of the occurrence of a given pattern, for all primes p less than a large integer N, tends to a certain limit as N goes to infinity. It was proved by Nikolai Chebotaryov in his thesis in 1922, published in.
In mathematics, especially in the area of abstract algebra known as module theory, a semisimple module or completely reducible module is a type of module that can be understood easily from its parts. A ring that is a semisimple module over itself is known as an Artinian semisimple ring. Some important rings, such as group rings of finite groups over fields of characteristic zero, are semisimple rings. An Artinian ring is initially understood via its largest semisimple quotient. The structure of Artinian semisimple rings is well understood by the Artin–Wedderburn theorem, which exhibits these rings as finite direct products of matrix rings.
In mathematics, a noncommutative ring is a ring whose multiplication is not commutative; that is, there exist a and b in the ring such that ab and ba are different. Equivalently, a noncommutative ring is a ring that is not a commutative ring.
In mathematics, Galois rings are a type of finite commutative rings which generalize both the finite fields and the rings of integers modulo a prime power. A Galois ring is constructed from the ring similar to how a finite field is constructed from . It is a Galois extension of , when the concept of a Galois extension is generalized beyond the context of fields.