1. Introduction
Recall that, for a group
X and a ring
R,
R is called
X-graded if, for each element
x in the group
X, there is an additive subgroup
of
R, such that
and, for all
, we have
. If the condition
is replaced by the stronger one
for all
, then
R is called fully (or strongly)
X-graded ring. The theory of group graded ring is a rich area of mathematics with considerable connections to, for example, Clifford’s theory, and the research area of operator algebras; see [
1,
2,
3,
4].
There have been many generalizations for group graded rings via replacing groups by semigroups or monoids for grading; see for example [
5,
6,
7]. Some mathematicians have used different ways to generalize graded rings and modules as they consider the non-commutative algebraic geometry for quantum algebras to obtain the semi-graded rings and semi-graded modules (see [
8]).
There have also been different ways to study their properties, such as categorical methods. For instance, the study of separable functors introduced in [
1,
9] used this way.Although the emphasis was on the finite case for grading, there have been some works on the infinite case; see for example [
10].
In ref. [
11], Beggs constructs an algebraic structure consisting of a set
of left coset representatives for the left action of a subgroup
H on a group
X and a binary operation ‘∗’ on
. This operation guarantees the left identity and the right division property on
. ‘∗’ is not associative in the standard way, though the associativity could be satisfied by applying a “cocycle”
. Based on this algebraic structure
and the cocycle
f together with the action
and the coaction
defined in [
11], many research articles on the non-trivially associated categories and the
-weak graded rings and modules have been published (see [
12,
13,
14,
15]). The independence on the choice of representatives was proven in [
11].
In refs. [
13,
14,
15], the concepts of the group graded rings and modules were generalized by using the set
of left coset representatives, which was mentioned above with the binary operation ‘∗’ defined on it. The new generalized concepts were named
-weak graded rings and
-weak graded modules. It was found that many results could been carried out in the new setting. Moreover, some properties of these
-weak graded rings and modules were investigated.
Recently, the researchers have defined analogues of important operator algebras with rings that are equipped with a group grading. In particular, it has been noted that there is a kind of the correspondence between rings graded by a finite group
G and rings on which
G acts as automorphisms, which has been pointed out by many of the researchers, see [
2,
16,
17]. In fact, the two notions can be identical in specific cases.
In [
17], Cohen and Montgomery took advantage of the fact that gradings and group actions are dual concepts to introduce new results about graded rings. It can be noted that an
X-grading can be considered as a “coaction” of the finite group
X. A certain algebra
was formed, where
A is a
k-algebra graded by
X.
can be looked at as the graded rings, the skew group algebra
can be looked at as the group actions, and a Morita context can be constructed using them. It was found that many graded ring problems can be solved by using the “Duality Theorem”.
It was noted that the grading by a set of left coset representatives with the binary operation ‘∗’ is not always applicable; see [
14,
15]. In this article, we introduce two different approaches to make it applicable for any ring
R with unity. The first one is by choosing a subset
S of
such that
S is a group under the ∗ operation and putting
for all
and
. The second approach is induced by imposing specific conditions on
and the operations defined on it. More specifically, we combine the binary operation with the coaction in the definition of the grading. Many examples are provided throughout the article.
The importance of this work comes from associating the grading with a factorization of a given finite group which may lead to a quantization of the classical results of group graded rings and modules. Moreover, this work may be used to generalize some results in the literature; for example, the work of Cohen and Montgomery [
17], which was mentioned above. Throughout, unless otherwise stated, all groups are finite, rings are with unity, and modules are unital.
2. Preliminaries
In this section, we include some definitions that are needed for the present work.
Definition 1 ([
11])
. Given a finite group X and a subgroup H, call a set of left coset representatives if for every there is a unique such that . Let be elements in . Then, in H and in are determined by in X. Furthermore, the action and the coaction are determined by where and . These factorizations are unique. The binary operation ‘∗’ ensures the right division property, i.e., there is a unique solution
satisfying the equation
for all
and the left identity for each
which is denoted by ‘
’. In the case that
, then
. Theses are required to prove that the following identities are satisfied for all
and all
[
11]:
These identities have been used to prove our results and to construct our examples. For more details and properties of the binary operation ‘∗’, the cocycle
f, the action
and the coaction
, the reader is refered to [
11]. In what follows, whenever
and
H are mentioned, we mean the set and the subgroup defined above.
Definition 2 ([
13])
. Let X be a group, H be a subgroup of X, and be a fixed set of left coset representatives associated with a binary operation ∗. Then, a ring R is said to be a -weak graded ring ifandwhere the component is an additive subgroup for each . If we haveinstead of (4), then R is said to be a fully (or strongly) -weak graded ring. Definition 3 ([
15])
. Let R be a -weak graded ring. Then, a -weak graded left R-module M is a left R-module, which satisfies:andIf the relation (7) is replaced bythen M is termed a fully (or a strongly) -weak graded left R-module. Theorem 1 ([
14])
. Let R be a -weak graded ring with unity and x be an element in . If , for some , then . 3. Combining the Operation ∗ and the Coaction to Have -Weak Graded Rings
It is known, by definition, that in general
is not necessarily a non-trivial
-weak graded ring; see for example [
3,
13]. However, in this section we define a relation between the operation ∗ and the coaction
that makes the ring
R into a
-weak graded ring.
Theorem 2. Let be a finite group that factorizes into a subgroup H and a set of left coset representatives . Then, for any ring —as additive subgroups—such that for some , we have for all and for some .
Proof. Let for some . Hence, to show that , we consider the following cases:
- 1.
If , then which means . This leads to the following two sub-cases:
- i -
If , then .
- ii -
If , then as , we have . Hence, .
- 2.
If , then we have , which means . Since , hence .
- 3.
If , then we have two sub-cases:
- i -
If , then it is performed as .
- ii -
If , then by the right division property there is such that . Furthermore, since is not a group, there is such that . If it is performed. If suppose that , then again there is such that with , as is finite. Hence, and since H is a subgroup, we have . Thus, .
- 4.
and .
We have two sub-cases:
- i -
If , then it is performed by choosing , i.e., .
- ii -
If , then using the same technique as that applied in yields the result.
Note that if , then for all and for all since is an additive subgroup of the ring R for all as required. □
Corollary 1. If the ring R is a -weak graded ring, then for all and for some .
Proof. It follows directly by choosing
and using the identities in (
2). □
Definition 4 ([
14])
. Let R be a -weak graded ring. Then, a non-zero element is said to be a weak graded or -homogeneous element of grade s if there exists an s-component of R such that . We recall that a subring
K of a
-weak graded ring
R is a
-weak graded subring if
K itself is a
-weak graded ring [
14]. In the next theorem, we discuss when a subring
K of a
-weak graded ring
R is a
-weak graded subring respecting the inclusion property of
R that was mentioned in Theorem 2.
Theorem 3. Let be a finite group that factorizes into a subgroup H and a set of left coset representatives and let R be a -weak graded ring such that for all and for some . Then, a subring K of R is a -weak graded subring respecting the inclusion property above if K contains all the -homogeneous components for each .
Proof. Definition 2 yields every element
has a unique decomposition, written as
with
for all
and the sum is finite. As
K is a subring of
R, we can assume that for each
, we have
for all
. So we can write
as additive subgroups. Again, since
K is a subring of
R and
, we have
for all
. Furthermore, as
R is a
-weak graded ring, the concept of the direct sum condition yields
for all
with
. Consequently,
, as required.
Next, to prove that
. Let
and
for some
s,
t in
, and some
. Hence,
as required. □
Example 1. Consider the Morita ring mentioned in [13] Example 1. Let the group , the subgroup , and the set of left coset representatives . Then, the ∗ operation and the cocycle f as well as the action and the coaction are given by the following tables (Table 1 and Table 2): Then, , where andIn this case, regardless of the trivial case, T is not a -weak graded ring, as, for example, for all and , we have If we replace the relation by the relation , then we obtain for all and for some . Hence, T is going to be a -weak graded ring as follows, where the first table (Table 3) shows our choice of the element u for each time we apply the relation in the second table (Table 4): It is easy to prove that the inclusion property is satisfied by showing that: , , , , , , , and .
Thus, T is a -weak graded ring but not fully. For instance, , but the converse is not true. It can be noted that the relation can be satisfied by different choices of u; for example, the following tables also make T into a -weak graded ring (Table 5 and Table 6): Remark 1. If we replace the relation for all and for some in Theorem 2 by the more general one for all and for some , then the theorem is not going to work. Indeed, if we apply it on Example 1 we obtain but and there is no satisfying . Note that by the identities in (1). Example 2. Consider the ring of all matrices over the ring , i.e.,Let and the non-normal subgroup . Choose the set of left coset representatives to be . Then, the ∗ operation and the cocycle f as well as the action and the coaction are given by the following tables (Table 7 and Table 8): Then, R can be written as , where However, regardless of the trivial case, R is not a -weak graded ring as, for example,
for all and , we have If we replace the relation by the relation , then we obtain for all and for some . Hence, R is going to be a -weak graded ring as follows, where the first table (Table 9) shows our choice of the element u for each time we apply the relation in the second table (Table 10): Now, to show that R is a -weak graded ring, we prove that the inclusion property is satisfied, which can be performed easily by showing that:
, , , , , , , , and .
Thus, R is a -weak graded ring but not fully.For instance, but .
Example 3. Consider the ring of real quaternions Let and let be a subgroup of X. Take to be the set of left coset representative. Then, the operation and the cocycle f as well as the action and the coaction are given by the following tables (Table 11, Table 12, Table 13 and Table 14): Then, , whereBut, regardless of the trivial case, the ring is not a -weak graded ring. For instance, as for all , we have If we replace the relation by the relation , we obtain for all and for some . Hence, can be a -weak graded ring as follows, where the first table (Table 15) shows our choice of the element u for each time we apply the relation in the second table (Table 16): Now, to show that is a -weak graded ring, we prove that the inclusion property is satisfied, which can be performed easily by showing that:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , and .
Corollary 2. Let be a finite group that factorizes into a subgroup H and a set of left coset representatives and let R be a -weak graded ring. Then, for any left R-module M such thatand for some , we have for all and for some . Proof. It directly follows Definition 3 and Theorem 2. □
Corollary 3. If M is a -weak graded left R-module, then for all and for some .
Proof. It follows by Theorem 2, Corollary 2, and by choosing . □
Example 4. Consider the ring of all matrices over the ring of integers , i.e.,Consider the group and its non-normal subgroup . Choose the set of left coset representatives to be . Then, R is a -weak graded ring (see Example 2). Define Then, we haveHowever, regardless of the trivial case, M is not a -weak graded R-module as, for instance, for all and , we have . If we replace the relation by , we obtain for all and for some . Thus, M can be made into a -weak graded R-module by proving the inclusion property which can be easily performed by showing that: , , , , , , , and .
Therefore, M is a -weak graded R-module, which is not full. For instance, but .
4. -Weak Graded Rings by a Subset S
In general, is not necessarily a non-trivial -weak graded ring. However, it can be put into a -weak graded ring by choosing a subset S of such that S is a group under the ∗ operation and for all and .
Definition 5. Let S be a subset of such that S is a group under the ∗ operation, where is a fixed set of left coset representatives for the subgroup H of a finite group X. Then, a ring R is called an S-weak graded ring if It can be noted that any ring R can be considered an S-weak graded ring by putting and for all in the same way that R can be put into a -weak graded ring. In this case, R is called the trivial -weak graded ring.
Theorem 4. Let R be a -weak graded ring and let S be a subset of such that S is a group under the ∗ operation. Then, is an S-weak graded subring of R.
Proof. First, since
R is a
-weak graded ring, we have
So, we can rewrite
R as
Hence, as
, we have
and
for all
.
Next, to show that
is a subring of
R, we use the fact that
is an additive subgroup of
R and the assumption that
S is a group under the binary operation ∗ to have
which means that
is closed under multiplications. Moreover, since
is a group, we have
. Thus,
, as required. □
Definition 6 ([
14])
. For a -weak graded ring R, a unit is said to be a weak graded or -homogeneous element if for some , where is the group of all units in R. Theorem 5. Let R be a -weak graded ring with unity and let S be a subset of such that S is a group under the ∗ operation. Then, .
Proof. As
R is a
-weak graded ring, we obtain
In addition, since
S is a subset of
,
R can be rewritten as
Moreover,
can be written as
with
for all
.
Now, let , which means and . Then, by Theorem 1, there exists an element such that .
Since
is a group, we have
Thus,
.
On the other hand, let . Then, we have . Since , we obtain .
Therefore, as required. □
Example 5. Let X be the dihedral group and be a non-normal subgroup of X. We choose to be the set of left coset representatives. Then, the ∗ operation and the cocycle f as well as the action and the coaction are given by the following tables (Table 17 and Table 18): Take the ring R to be the matrix ring where T is an arbitrary ring. Choose the subset S of to be , then R is an S-weak graded ring by putting:and for all , . Obviously, . The inclusion property can be proved for all by showing that: , , and . Thus, R is a fully S-weak graded ring.
Example 6. Take X to be the dihedral group , and to be a non-normal subgroup of X. We choose to be the set of left coset representatives. Then, the ∗ operation and the cocycle f as well as the action and the coaction are given by the following tables (Table 19 and Table 20): Take the ring R to be . Take the subset S of to be , then R is an S-weak graded ring by putting:and Rt = 0 for all . Hence, . In addition, the inclusion property can be proved easily for all by showing that: , , , , , , , and . Thus, R is an S-weak graded ring which is not a fully. For instance, as .
Example 7. Let R be any ring and consider the polynomial ring . Then, is an S-weak graded ring by choosing , where S is a subset of any set of left coset representatives such that S is a group under the ∗ operation, as well asand for all with . Hence, as we cannot add two non-zero weak graded elements and to obtain zero. Moreover, the inclusion property is satisfied as for any weak graded elements and , we have and , as required.