Abstract Algebra – Properties of a Ring with Exactly Two Right Ideals

abstract-algebraring-theory

This is question #66 from http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/practice_book_math.pdf

Let $R$ be a ring with a multiplicative identity. If $U$ is an additive subgroup of $R$ such that $ur \in U$ for all
$u \in U$ and for all $r \in R$ , then $U$ is said to be a right ideal of $R$. If $R$ has exactly two right ideals, which of
the following must be true?

I. $R$ is commutative.
II. $R$ is a division ring (that is, all elements except the additive identity have multiplicative inverses).
III. $R$ is infinite.

Here is my reasoning:
Because $R$ is a ring, $R$ is also a additive group with some identity element $0$. We have a theorem that says $0r = 0 $ in any ring, so $\{0\}$ is a right ideal of $R$. Also, $R$ is a right ideal of $R$. Now I have found two different right ideals and there mustn't be any more.

Edit: As mentioned in the comments, the example below is not a ring, so it is not applicable to the problem. I could not fix it by taking additive closure because that introduced more than two ideals.

A possible candidate for $R$ could be the set of $2\times2$ matrices $\{0,I,-I,a,-a\}$ where $a = [[^1_0] ,[^0_0]]$. The only right ideals are $R$ and $\{0\}$. This ring satisfies only property I, but the answer key says that II is the correct answer.

Best Answer

Well since $R$ has exactly two right ideals we know a priori that the two ideals are just $\{0\},R$ since these two are always ideals. Therefore if $I$ is a non zero ideal of $R$ then $I=R$.

Let $a\in R, \ a\neq0$. We will show that $a$ is invertible and therefore $R$ is a division ring. Consider the ideal $\langle a\rangle=\{ar:r\in R\}$. Since $\langle a\rangle\neq\{0\} \Longrightarrow \langle a\rangle=R \Longrightarrow 1\in \langle a\rangle\Longrightarrow 1=ar$ for some $r\in R.$ Now by considering the ideal $\langle r\rangle$ there is some $s\in R$ such that $rs=1$. It remains to show that $a=s$. Use that $1\cdot s=s$ and $a=a\cdot1$.

Related Question