The paper investigates the algebraic properties of weakly inverse-closed complex Banach function algebras generated by functions of bounded variation on a finite interval. It is proved that such algebras have Bass stable rank 1 and are projective-free if they do not contain nontrivial idempotents. These properties are derived from a new result on the vanishing of the second Čech cohomology group of the polynomially convex hull of a continuum of a finite linear measure described by the classical H. Alexander theorem.

An associative ring R is called potent provided that for every $x\in R$, there is an integer $n(x)>1$ such that $x^{n(x)}=x$. A celebrated result of N. Jacobson is that every potent ring is commutative. In this note, we show that a ring R is potent if and only if every nonzero subring S of R contains a nonzero idempotent. We use this result to give a generalization of a recent result of Anderson and Danchev for reduced rings, which in turn generalizes Jacobson’s theorem.

We show that there is no nontrivial idempotent in the reduced group $\ell ^p$-operator algebra $B^p_r(F_n)$ of the free group $F_n$ on n generators for each positive integer n.

We prove that a ring R is an $n \times n$ matrix ring (that is, $R \cong \mathbb {M}_n(S)$ for some ring S) if and only if there exists a (von Neumann) regular element x in R such that $l_R(x) = R{x^{n-1}}$ . As applications, we prove some new results, strengthen some known results and provide easier proofs of other results. For instance, we prove that if a ring R has elements x and y such that $x^n = 0$ , $Rx+Ry = R$ and $Ry \cap l_{R}(x^{n-1}) = 0$ , then R is an $n \times n$ matrix ring. This improves a result of Fuchs [‘A characterisation result for matrix rings’, Bull. Aust. Math. Soc. 43 (1991), 265–267] where it is proved assuming further that the element y is nilpotent of index two and $x+y$ is a unit. For an ideal I of a ring R, we prove that the ring $(\begin {smallmatrix} R & I \\ R & R \end {smallmatrix})$ is a $2 \times 2$ matrix ring if and only if $R/I$ is so.

The goal of this note is to completely determine the rings for which every nonunit is a product of a nilpotent and an idempotent (in either order).

The Peter–Weyl idempotent $e_{\mathscr{P}}$ of a parahoric subgroup $\mathscr{P}$ is the sum of the idempotents of irreducible representations of $\mathscr{P}$ that have a nonzero Iwahori fixed vector. The convolution algebra associated with $e_{\mathscr{P}}$ is called a Peter–Weyl Iwahori algebra. We show that any Peter–Weyl Iwahori algebra is Morita equivalent to the Iwahori–Hecke algebra. Both the Iwahori–Hecke algebra and a Peter–Weyl Iwahori algebra have a natural conjugate linear anti-involution $\star$, and the Morita equivalence preserves irreducible hermitian and unitary modules. Both algebras have another anti-involution, denoted by $\bullet$, and the Morita equivalence preserves irreducible and unitary modules for $\bullet$.

This paper is about rings $R$ for which every element is a sum of a tripotent and an element from the Jacobson radical $J(R)$. These rings are called semi-tripotent rings. Examples include Boolean rings, strongly nil-clean rings, strongly 2-nil-clean rings, and semi-boolean rings. Here, many characterizations of semi-tripotent rings are obtained. Necessary and sufficient conditions for a Morita context (respectively, for a group ring of an abelian group or a locally finite nilpotent group) to be semi-tripotent are proved.

Order three elements in the exceptional groups of type ${{G}_{2}}$ are classified up to conjugation over arbitrary fields. Their centralizers are computed, and the associated classification of idempotents in symmetric composition algebras is obtained. Idempotents have played a key role in the study and classification of these algebras.

Over an algebraically closed field, there are two conjugacy classes of order three elements in ${{G}_{2}}$ in characteristic not 3 and four of them in characteristic 3. The centralizers in characteristic 3 fail to be smooth for one of these classes.

We prove that every endomorphism of an infinite-dimensional vector space over a field splits into the sum of four idempotents and into the sum of four square-zero endomorphisms, a result that is optimal in general.

Let $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}S$ be a semigroup. Elements $a,b$ of $S$ are $\widetilde{\mathscr{R}}$-related if they have the same idempotent left identities. Then $S$ is weakly left ample if (1) idempotents of $S$ commute, (2) $\widetilde{\mathscr{R}}$ is a left congruence, (3) for any $a \in S$, $a$ is $\widetilde{\mathscr{R}}$-related to a (unique) idempotent, say $a^+$, and (4) for any element $a$ and idempotent $e$ of $S$, $ae=(ae)^+a$. Elements $a,b$ of $S$ are $\mathscr{R}^*$-related if, for any $x,y \in S^1$, $xa=ya$ if and only if $xb=yb$. Then $S$ is left ample if it satisfies (1), (3) and (4) relative to $\mathscr{R}^*$ instead of $\widetilde{\mathscr{R}}$. Further, $S$ is (weakly) ample if it is both (weakly) left and right ample. We establish several characterizations of these classes of semigroups. For weakly left ample ones we provide a construction of all such semigroups with zero all of whose nonzero idempotents are primitive. Among characterizations of weakly ample semigroups figure (strong) semilattices of unipotent monoids, and among those for ample semigroups, (strong) semilattices of cancellative monoids. This describes the structure of these two classes of semigroups in an optimal way, while, for the ‘one-sided’ case, the problem of structure remains open.

In 1990, Howie and McFadden showed that every proper two-sided ideal of the full transformation monoid $T_n$, the set of all maps from an $n$-set to itself under composition, has a generating set, consisting of idempotents, that is no larger than any other generating set. This fact is a direct consequence of the same property holding in an associated finite $0$-simple semigroup. We show a correspondence between finite $0$-simple semigroups that have this property and bipartite graphs that satisfy a condition that is similar to, but slightly stronger than, Hall's condition. The results are applied in order to recover the above result for the full transformation monoid and to prove the analogous result for the proper two-sided ideals of the monoid of endomorphisms of a finite vector space.

We define a subgraph of the zero divisor graph of a ring, associated to the ring idempotents. We study its properties and prove that for large classes of rings the connectedness of the graph is equivalent to the indecomposability of the ring and in those cases we also calculate the graph’s diameter.

We give bounds on the distance from a non-zero idempotent to the set of nilpotents in the set of $n\,\times \,n$ matrices in terms of the norm of the idempotent. We construct explicit idempotents and nilpotents which achieve these distances, and determine exact distances in some special cases.

In this paper we define and study a generalized Drazin inverse xD for ring elements x, and give a characterization of elements a, b for which aaD = bbD. We apply our results to the study of EP elements in a ring with involution.