In ring theory, a branch of abstract algebra, a quotient ring, also known as factor ring, difference ring[1] or residue class ring, is a construction quite similar to the quotient group in group theory and to the quotient space in linear algebra.[2][3] It is a specific example of a quotient, as viewed from the general setting of universal algebra. Starting with a ring and a two-sided ideal in , a new ring, the quotient ring , is constructed, whose elements are the cosets of in subject to special and operations. (Quotient ring notation always uses a fraction slash "/".)

Quotient rings are distinct from the so-called "quotient field", or field of fractions, of an integral domain as well as from the more general "rings of quotients" obtained by localization.

Formal quotient ring construction

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Given a ring   and a two-sided ideal   in  , we may define an equivalence relation   on   as follows:

  if and only if   is in  .

Using the ideal properties, it is not difficult to check that   is a congruence relation. In case  , we say that   and   are congruent modulo   (for example,   and   are congruent modulo   as their difference is an element of the ideal  , the even integers). The equivalence class of the element   in   is given by:  

This equivalence class is also sometimes written as   and called the "residue class of   modulo  ".

The set of all such equivalence classes is denoted by  ; it becomes a ring, the factor ring or quotient ring of   modulo  , if one defines

  •  ;
  •  .

(Here one has to check that these definitions are well-defined. Compare coset and quotient group.) The zero-element of   is  , and the multiplicative identity is  .

The map   from   to   defined by   is a surjective ring homomorphism, sometimes called the natural quotient map or the canonical homomorphism.

Examples

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  • The quotient ring   is naturally isomorphic to  , and   is the zero ring  , since, by our definition, for any  , we have that  , which equals   itself. This fits with the rule of thumb that the larger the ideal  , the smaller the quotient ring  . If   is a proper ideal of  , i.e.,  , then   is not the zero ring.
  • Consider the ring of integers   and the ideal of even numbers, denoted by  . Then the quotient ring   has only two elements, the coset   consisting of the even numbers and the coset   consisting of the odd numbers; applying the definition,  , where   is the ideal of even numbers. It is naturally isomorphic to the finite field with two elements,  . Intuitively: if you think of all the even numbers as  , then every integer is either   (if it is even) or   (if it is odd and therefore differs from an even number by  ). Modular arithmetic is essentially arithmetic in the quotient ring   (which has   elements).
  • Now consider the ring of polynomials in the variable   with real coefficients,  , and the ideal   consisting of all multiples of the polynomial  . The quotient ring   is naturally isomorphic to the field of complex numbers  , with the class   playing the role of the imaginary unit  . The reason is that we "forced"  , i.e.  , which is the defining property of  . Since any integer exponent of   must be either   or  , that means all possible polynomials essentially simplify to the form  . (To clarify, the quotient ring   is actually naturally isomorphic to the field of all linear polynomials  , where the operations are performed modulo  . In return, we have  , and this is matching   to the imaginary unit in the isomorphic field of complex numbers.)
  • Generalizing the previous example, quotient rings are often used to construct field extensions. Suppose   is some field and   is an irreducible polynomial in  . Then   is a field whose minimal polynomial over   is  , which contains   as well as an element  .
  • One important instance of the previous example is the construction of the finite fields. Consider for instance the field   with three elements. The polynomial   is irreducible over   (since it has no root), and we can construct the quotient ring  . This is a field with   elements, denoted by  . The other finite fields can be constructed in a similar fashion.
  • The coordinate rings of algebraic varieties are important examples of quotient rings in algebraic geometry. As a simple case, consider the real variety   as a subset of the real plane  . The ring of real-valued polynomial functions defined on   can be identified with the quotient ring  , and this is the coordinate ring of  . The variety   is now investigated by studying its coordinate ring.
  • Suppose   is a  -manifold, and   is a point of  . Consider the ring   of all  -functions defined on   and let   be the ideal in   consisting of those functions   which are identically zero in some neighborhood   of   (where   may depend on  ). Then the quotient ring   is the ring of germs of  -functions on   at  .
  • Consider the ring   of finite elements of a hyperreal field  . It consists of all hyperreal numbers differing from a standard real by an infinitesimal amount, or equivalently: of all hyperreal numbers   for which a standard integer   with   exists. The set   of all infinitesimal numbers in  , together with  , is an ideal in  , and the quotient ring   is isomorphic to the real numbers  . The isomorphism is induced by associating to every element   of   the standard part of  , i.e. the unique real number that differs from   by an infinitesimal. In fact, one obtains the same result, namely  , if one starts with the ring   of finite hyperrationals (i.e. ratio of a pair of hyperintegers), see construction of the real numbers.

Variations of complex planes

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The quotients  ,  , and   are all isomorphic to   and gain little interest at first. But note that   is called the dual number plane in geometric algebra. It consists only of linear binomials as "remainders" after reducing an element of   by  . This variation of a complex plane arises as a subalgebra whenever the algebra contains a real line and a nilpotent.

Furthermore, the ring quotient   does split into   and  , so this ring is often viewed as the direct sum  . Nevertheless, a variation on complex numbers   is suggested by   as a root of  , compared to   as root of  . This plane of split-complex numbers normalizes the direct sum   by providing a basis   for 2-space where the identity of the algebra is at unit distance from the zero. With this basis a unit hyperbola may be compared to the unit circle of the ordinary complex plane.

Quaternions and variations

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Suppose   and   are two non-commuting indeterminates and form the free algebra  . Then Hamilton's quaternions of 1843 can be cast as:  

If   is substituted for  , then one obtains the ring of split-quaternions. The anti-commutative property   implies that   has as its square:  

Substituting minus for plus in both the quadratic binomials also results in split-quaternions.

The three types of biquaternions can also be written as quotients by use of the free algebra with three indeterminates   and constructing appropriate ideals.

Properties

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Clearly, if   is a commutative ring, then so is  ; the converse, however, is not true in general.

The natural quotient map   has   as its kernel; since the kernel of every ring homomorphism is a two-sided ideal, we can state that two-sided ideals are precisely the kernels of ring homomorphisms.

The intimate relationship between ring homomorphisms, kernels and quotient rings can be summarized as follows: the ring homomorphisms defined on   are essentially the same as the ring homomorphisms defined on   that vanish (i.e. are zero) on  . More precisely, given a two-sided ideal   in   and a ring homomorphism   whose kernel contains  , there exists precisely one ring homomorphism   with   (where   is the natural quotient map). The map   here is given by the well-defined rule   for all   in  . Indeed, this universal property can be used to define quotient rings and their natural quotient maps.

As a consequence of the above, one obtains the fundamental statement: every ring homomorphism   induces a ring isomorphism between the quotient ring   and the image  . (See also: Fundamental theorem on homomorphisms.)

The ideals of   and   are closely related: the natural quotient map provides a bijection between the two-sided ideals of   that contain   and the two-sided ideals of   (the same is true for left and for right ideals). This relationship between two-sided ideal extends to a relationship between the corresponding quotient rings: if   is a two-sided ideal in   that contains  , and we write   for the corresponding ideal in   (i.e.  ), the quotient rings   and   are naturally isomorphic via the (well-defined) mapping  .

The following facts prove useful in commutative algebra and algebraic geometry: for   commutative,   is a field if and only if   is a maximal ideal, while   is an integral domain if and only if   is a prime ideal. A number of similar statements relate properties of the ideal   to properties of the quotient ring  .

The Chinese remainder theorem states that, if the ideal   is the intersection (or equivalently, the product) of pairwise coprime ideals  , then the quotient ring   is isomorphic to the product of the quotient rings  .

For algebras over a ring

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An associative algebra   over a commutative ring   is a ring itself. If   is an ideal in   (closed under  -multiplication), then   inherits the structure of an algebra over   and is the quotient algebra.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Jacobson, Nathan (1984). Structure of Rings (revised ed.). American Mathematical Soc. ISBN 0-821-87470-5.
  2. ^ Dummit, David S.; Foote, Richard M. (2004). Abstract Algebra (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-43334-9.
  3. ^ Lang, Serge (2002). Algebra. Graduate Texts in Mathematics. Springer. ISBN 0-387-95385-X.

Further references

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  • F. Kasch (1978) Moduln und Ringe, translated by DAR Wallace (1982) Modules and Rings, Academic Press, page 33.
  • Neal H. McCoy (1948) Rings and Ideals, §13 Residue class rings, page 61, Carus Mathematical Monographs #8, Mathematical Association of America.
  • Joseph Rotman (1998). Galois Theory (2nd ed.). Springer. pp. 21–23. ISBN 0-387-98541-7.
  • B.L. van der Waerden (1970) Algebra, translated by Fred Blum and John R Schulenberger, Frederick Ungar Publishing, New York. See Chapter 3.5, "Ideals. Residue Class Rings", pp. 47–51.
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