Quotient ring
In ring theory, a branch of abstract algebra, a quotient ring, also known as factor ring, difference ring or residue class ring, is a construction quite similar to the quotient groups of group theory and the quotient spaces of linear algebra. It is a specific example of a quotient, as viewed from the general setting of universal algebra. One starts with a ring R and a two-sided ideal I in R, and constructs a new ring, the quotient ring, whose elements are the cosets of I in R subject to special + and ⋅ operations.
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
Given a ring and a two-sided ideal in, we may define an equivalence relation on as follows:Using the ideal properties, it is not difficult to check that is a congruence relation.
In case, we say that and are congruent modulo.
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
- ;
- .
The map from to defined by is a surjective ring homomorphism, sometimes called the natural quotient map or the canonical homomorphism.
Examples
- The quotient ring is naturally isomorphic to R, and is the zero ring, since, by our definition, for any r in R, we have that , which is isomorphic to R itself. This fits with the rule of thumb that the larger the ideal I, the smaller the quotient ring. If I is a proper ideal of R, i.e.,, then is not the zero ring.
- Consider the ring of integers Z and the ideal of even numbers, denoted by 2Z. 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 2Z is the ideal of even numbers. It is naturally isomorphic to the finite field with two elements, F2. Intuitively: if you think of all the even numbers as 0, then every integer is either 0 or 1. Modular arithmetic is essentially arithmetic in the quotient ring .
- Now consider the ring R of polynomials in the variable X 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 C, with the class playing the role of the imaginary unit i. The reason is that we "forced", i.e., which is the defining property of i.
- Generalizing the previous example, quotient rings are often used to construct field extensions. Suppose K is some field and f is an irreducible polynomial in K. Then is a field whose minimal polynomial over K is f, which contains K 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 F3, and we can construct the quotient ring. This is a field with elements, denoted by F9. 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 R2. The ring of real-valued polynomial functions defined on V can be identified with the quotient ring, and this is the coordinate ring of V. The variety V is now investigated by studying its coordinate ring.
- Suppose M is a C∞-manifold, and p is a point of M. Consider the ring of all C∞-functions defined on M and let I be the ideal in R consisting of those functions f which are identically zero in some neighborhood U of p. Then the quotient ring is the ring of germs of C∞-functions on M at p.
- Consider the ring F of finite elements of a hyperreal field *R. It consists of all hyperreal numbers differing from a standard real by an infinitesimal amount, or equivalently: of all hyperreal numbers x for which a standard integer n with exists. The set I of all infinitesimal numbers in *R, together with 0, is an ideal in F, and the quotient ring is isomorphic to the real numbers R. The isomorphism is induced by associating to every element x of F the standard part of x, i.e. the unique real number that differs from x by an infinitesimal. In fact, one obtains the same result, namely R, if one starts with the ring F of finite hyperrationals, see construction of the real numbers.
Alternative complex planes
Furthermore, the ring quotient does split into and, so this ring is often viewed as the direct sum.
Nevertheless, an alternative complex number is suggested by j as a root of, compared to i 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 alternatives
Suppose X and Y are two, non-commuting, indeterminates and form the free algebra. Then Hamilton’s quaternions of 1843 can be cast asIf is substituted for, then one obtains the ring of split-quaternions. Substituting minus for plus in both the quadratic binomials also results in split-quaternions. The anti-commutative property implies that XY has as its square
The three types of biquaternions can also be written as quotients by use of the free algebra with three indeterminates R and constructing appropriate ideals.
Properties
Clearly, if R is a commutative ring, then so is ; the converse however is not true in general.The natural quotient map p has I 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 R that vanish on I. More precisely, given a two-sided ideal I in R and a ring homomorphism whose kernel contains I, there exists precisely one ring homomorphism with . The map g here is given by the well-defined rule for all a in R. 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 im.
The ideals of R and are closely related: the natural quotient map provides a bijection between the two-sided ideals of R that contain I and the two-sided ideals of . This relationship between two-sided ideal extends to a relationship between the corresponding quotient rings: if M is a two-sided ideal in R that contains I, and we write for the corresponding ideal in , the quotient rings and are naturally isomorphic via the mapping.
In commutative algebra and algebraic geometry, the following statement is often used: If is a commutative ring and I is a maximal ideal, then the quotient ring is a field; if I is only a prime ideal, then is only an integral domain. A number of similar statements relate properties of the ideal I to properties of the quotient ring.
The Chinese remainder theorem states that, if the ideal I is the intersection of pairwise coprime ideals I1,..., Ik, then the quotient ring is isomorphic to the product of the quotient rings,.
For algebras over a ring
An associative algebra A over a commutative ring R is a ring itself. If I is an ideal in A, then A / I inherits the structure of an algebra over R and is the quotient algebra.Further references
- F. Kasch Moduln und Ringe, translated by DAR Wallace Modules and Rings, Academic Press, page 33.
- Neal H. McCoy Rings and Ideals, §13 Residue class rings, page 61, Carus Mathematical Monographs #8, Mathematical Association of America.
- B.L. van der Waerden Algebra, translated by Fred Blum and John R Schulenberger, Frederick Ungar Publishing, New York. See Chapter 3.5, "Ideals. Residue Class Rings", pages 47 to 51.