A NOTE ON POLYNOMIAL RINGS OVER VON NEUMANN REGULAR RINGS

Abstract

Let R be an associative ring with 1. It is well known (see [1], [2]) that if R is commutative, then R is Yon Neumann regular (VNR) <=> the polynomial ring S = R[x] is semihereditary. While one of these implications is true in the general case, it is known that a polynomial ring over a regular ring need not be semihereditary (see [3]). In [4] we showed that a ring R is VNR <=> aS + xS is projective for each a ε R. In this note we sharpen this result and use it to show that if c is the ring epimorphism from R[x] to R that maps each polynomial onto its constant term, then R is Yon Neumann regular <=> the inverse image (under c) of each principal (right, left) ideal of R. is a principal (right. left) ideal of R[x] generated by a regular element. (Here an element is regular if and only if it is a non zero-divisor).