Centralizer near-rings that are rings

Abstract

AbstractGiven an R-module M, the centralizer near-ring ℳR (M) is the set of all functions f: M → M with f(xr)= f(x)r for all x ∈ M and r∈R endowed with point-wise addition and composition of functions as multiplication. In general, ℳR(M) is not a ring but is a near-ring containing the endomorphism ring ER(M) of M. Necessary and/or sufficient conditions are derived for ℳR(M) to be a ring. For the case that R is a Dedekind domain, the R-modules M are characterized for which (i) ℳR(M) is a ring; and (ii)ℳR(M) = ER(M). It is shown that over Dedekind domains with finite prime spectrum properties (i) and (ii) are equivalent.