Essential covers and complements of radicals

Abstract

We show that a radical has a semisimple essential cover if and only if it is hereditary and has a complement in the lattice of hereditary radicals. In 1971 Snider gave a full description of supernilpotent radicals which have a complement. Recently Beidar, Fong, Ke, and Shum have determined radicals with semisimple essential covers. Using their results, we are able to provide a lower radical representation of complemented subidempotent radicals. This completes Snider's description of hereditary complemented radicals.