This two-sided ideal is spanned by paths of positive length; its th power is spanned by paths of length at least . The quotient is a product of copies of the ground field indexed by vertices. For a finite acyclic quiver, the ideal is nilpotent and equals the Jacobson radical. A loop shows that the equality can fail in general.
For a nonzero finite-dimensional complex vector space , a unital matrix algebra acting irreducibly on is the full endomorphism algebra. Its Jacobson radical annihilates : otherwise the radical times is all of , contradicting nilpotence. Faithfulness kills the radical, and the Artin–Wedderburn theorem then leaves one simple matrix factor acting on its standard column module. This is a matrix-algebra theorem, distinct from the orbit-counting Burnside lemma and the finite-group Burnside's theorem.
The center of an indecomposable finite-dimensional block of a group algebra is a commutative Artinian local ring. Its quotient by its Jacobson radical is a field, giving the block's central character. Over a splitting field for finite group representations the residue field is the coefficient field; without this assumption one retains the residue field rather than pretending every central character is scalar-valued over .
A commutative Artinian ring has finite composition length as a module over itself. It has finitely many maximal ideals, and its Jacobson radical is nilpotent. The Chinese remainder theorem makes a finite product of fields; each Artinian module has finite-dimensional components over those fields. Adding their lengths along the finite radical filtration proves the assertion, and in particular the ascending chain condition.
In characteristic , the displayed map on the cocenter of a finite-dimensional algebra is additive and Frobenius-semilinear. Expand a th power into words: nonconstant cyclic-word orbits have length and cancel modulo commutators. Also and have the same cocenter class, so the map kills additive commutators and is well defined.
Over a perfect field with split semisimple quotient, the stable image of this map has dimension equal to the number of simple modules of the algebra. Indeed, the kernel of has representatives in the nilpotent Jacobson radical, so an iterate kills it. On the semisimple algebra quotient, each matrix-block coordinate is a field trace, and . For a split semisimple quotient, Frobenius is bijective on every coordinate. In a group algebra over an algebraically closed field, the stable image has the p-regular element conjugacy classes as its basis, proving the simple-module counting theorem.
If is a finite -group and has characteristic , then the augmentation ideal is the Jacobson radical of and . Thus is a local ring, has only the trivial simple module, and its regular module is indecomposable.
Hopkins-Levitzki theorem Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
A right Artinian ring is a right Noetherian ring. Its right regular module therefore has finite composition length. Its Jacobson radical is a nilpotent ideal, and its quotient by that Jacobson radical is a semisimple ring. In particular every finitely generated right module over such a ring has finite composition length.
Idempotent lifting 2026-10-03
If a ring is complete with respect to an ideal contained in its Jacobson radical, every idempotent in the quotient lifts to an idempotent of the ring. Consequently direct-sum decompositions of a modular reduction lift to a complete integral lattice.
The unit criterion for the Jacobson radical implies that every radical element is a quasinilpotent element, because is invertible for every nonzero . Conversely, if a two-sided ideal consists of quasinilpotent elements, then is quasinilpotent for every member and every . Hence is invertible and lies in the Jacobson radical. The maximality statement concerns ideals contained in the quasinilpotent set, not the whole set itself.
Fixing a Krull-Schmidt decomposition embeds by its actions on multiplicity spaces. This splits reduction modulo the Jacobson radical. Hence , with a closed normal unipotent first factor. The explicit section works in every characteristic.
The algebra consists of the lower triangular by matrices over . Its Jacobson radical consists of the strictly lower triangular matrices, and
The simple left modules are one-dimensional, with a matrix acting through its th diagonal entry. For the left regular module,
Maximal right ideal 2026-10-05
A proper right ideal is maximal if no proper right ideal strictly contains it. Equivalently, is a simple module. The Jacobson radical is the intersection of all maximal right ideals.
In a right Artinian ring, the powers of its Jacobson radical stabilize at an ideal satisfying . If , choose a minimal right ideal with . Since , minimality gives . Choosing with gives by the same minimality. Consequently for some . The unit criterion for the Jacobson radical makes invertible, forcing , a contradiction. This proof avoids incorrectly applying the finitely generated form of Nakayama lemma to an arbitrary Artinian module.
A representation of a Banach algebra is a complex-linear multiplicative map . A nonzero irreducible action of a unital algebra automatically has : the image of the idempotent is a nonzero invariant subspace and hence is all of . An algebraically irreducible representation of a Banach algebra is a nonzero action if it has no nonzero proper invariant submodule, whether closed or not. A normed representation of a Banach algebra has bounded for each on a preassigned normed vector space ; continuity of as an operator-norm-valued map is a further conclusion. This must not be confused with topological irreducibility, which excludes only closed invariant subspaces. Unitizing the algebra extends a nonunital action by , so it is enough to discuss the unital case.
For , irreducibility gives . The annihilator is a maximal left ideal: an intermediate left ideal gives an intermediate submodule of . It is closed by the Neumann-series argument for maximal left ideals. Consequently transports a complete quotient norm to , and left multiplication is contractive in this norm. Every algebraically irreducible representation of a Banach algebra can therefore be realized continuously on a Banach space. This alone does not prove continuity for its preassigned norm.
The kernel of is the intersection of the closed left ideals and is a closed primitive ideal. The Jacobson radical is the intersection of all primitive ideals, equivalently the intersection of maximal left ideals. Thus these quotient representations detect semisimplicity. Equivalent algebra representations are related by a bijective module homomorphism.
The algebra of module endomorphisms is exactly . Indeed, if a module endomorphism sends a fixed cyclic vector to , then . It is induced by bounded right multiplication by on , so is bounded for the quotient norm on an irreducible Banach module. Every nonzero module endomorphism is injective and surjective by irreducibility, and its inverse is bounded by the same argument. This commutant of an operator algebra is a closed division subalgebra of the bounded operators on this Banach module; the Gelfand-Mazur theorem makes it .
The Jacobson density theorem now says that for finitely many linearly independent and arbitrary , one element of sends all to . Here is the induction behind it. The one-vector assertion is . Assuming the first coordinates can be prescribed, set . Its image is an invariant subspace. If it is , it adjusts the last image without changing the first ones. If it is zero, the rule is a well-defined module map . Each coordinate map is scalar by the module endomorphism result, forcing to be a linear combination of the earlier vectors, a contradiction. This proves the assertion.
We can now give Johnson's continuity argument with its crucial construction. If is finite dimensional, the closed kernel has finite codimension and is finite dimensional, so is continuous. Suppose instead that is infinite dimensional. Let
This is an invariant submodule, because the orbit map of is the orbit map of composed with the bounded map . Thus either or .
To rule out , choose linearly independent unit vectors . There are elements such that, with ,
For completeness, construct them in the canonical quotient-norm Banach module. At stage the current tail vectors are independent. In the closed left annihilator of its first vector, density permits arbitrary images of any finite list of the remaining vectors. The condition that finitely many such images are independent is open in this Banach subspace and dense: perturb any element by times an element prescribing independent images; a suitable determinant is a nonzero polynomial in , with only finitely many exceptional values. The Baire category theorem intersects these open dense conditions for all initial finite tail lists. The resulting kills the first current vector and retains independence of the entire remaining tail. This is the countable annihilation sequence in an irreducible Banach module.
The gliding-hump continuity principle supplies the other ingredient: if are Banach spaces, is linear, and are bounded, and is continuous whenever , then is continuous eventually. The product form of this principle is recorded in Proposition 1.3 of Thomas's paper. Here is the contradiction mechanism. Rescale so and put . If infinitely many diagonal maps are discontinuous, choose increasing and successively tiny so
Also choose . The convergent sum has, after its th term, a tail factoring through . Applying that continuous composite bounds the tail contribution by one. The display forces , contradicting . Only finite decompositions and the continuous tail composites are used; no unjustified interchange of a discontinuous map with an infinite sum occurs.
Apply this principle with , , where is the completion in the original norm, and the bounded extension of . Set and . Then
For this is zero, hence continuous. For it is the orbit map of a nonzero vector, hence discontinuous if . This contradicts the principle. Therefore .
Finally, apply the Uniform boundedness principle on the Banach space to the continuous maps indexed by . They are pointwise bounded because each individual is bounded in the original norm. It gives
This proves Johnson's continuity theorem for irreducible normed representations, including when the original normed vector space is incomplete. The quotient norm, countable density construction, and gliding hump explain the substantive steps rather than assuming the desired continuity in advance.
It suffices first to treat unital algebras and a unital homomorphism. A surjective homomorphism between unital algebras automatically preserves the identity. If , continuity is immediate. In the nonunital case, extend to the forced unitizations by . This is still surjective and the unitization of a semisimple algebra is semisimple: its radical projects to zero in its scalar quotient, and its remaining intersection with the original algebra is its original radical. Continuity of the extension implies continuity of the original map.
An algebra homomorphism decreases the spectral radius, even without any continuity assumption, because it takes an inverse of to an inverse of . Suppose in and in . Fix any and choose with , . Put
Consider the polynomial . Its value at one is exactly . On the outer circle ,
On the inner circle , spectral-radius decrease gives
Applying part (i) in and then letting , with fixed, gives
This holds for every , so for every .
This forces into the Jacobson radical. To see the criterion directly, if were outside a maximal left ideal , then , so for some , . The equality makes invertible, but this element equals , impossible in a proper left ideal. Hence lies in every maximal left ideal. Since is semisimple, .
We have shown that the separating space of is zero. If and , apply the result to to obtain . Its graph is closed, and the closed graph theorem now proves
The crucial estimate uses part (i) with an exactly fixed central value; it does not assume the false general assertion that the spectral radius is continuous under norm limits.
Let be a commutative Artinian ring. We prove finite composition length first, without assuming the conclusion that is Noetherian.
Every prime ideal is maximal. Indeed, an Artinian integral domain is a field: for , stabilization of gives , and cancellation gives . There are only finitely many maximal ideals. To see this, choose a minimal finite intersection using the descending chain condition. Minimality gives for any other maximal ideal . Since , primeness forces one , and maximality makes them equal. Thus the Jacobson radical is this finite intersection, and the Chinese remainder theorem gives
We also need nilpotence of . Its powers stabilize; put at a stabilization stage, so . If , choose an ideal minimal subject to . Since , minimality gives . Choose with . Minimality applied to the subideal gives . The equality then yields for some . But is a unit by the unit criterion for the Jacobson radical; hence , a contradiction. Therefore .
Each layer is an Artinian module over the finite product of fields . Its components over those fields are finite-dimensional: an infinite-dimensional vector space has a strictly descending chain of subspaces. Each layer consequently has finite composition length. The finite filtration
proves that itself has finite composition length, and therefore satisfies the ascending chain condition on ideals. Every commutative Artinian ring is Noetherian. The zero ring satisfies the conclusion trivially.
The relevant Artin–Wedderburn theorem says that a semisimple ring which is a right Artinian ring has the form
where the are division rings and the positive integers and division rings are unique up to permutation and isomorphism. The division rings need not be commutative or finite-dimensional over a field. Conversely every such finite product is semisimple and a right Artinian ring.
Here is a proof which also works if semisimplicity is initially expressed as . A nonzero right ideal contains a minimal nonzero right ideal by the descending chain condition; is a simple module. If , then for every and , , so has inverse . The unit criterion for the Jacobson radical would give , a contradiction. Thus some induces a nonzero map by left multiplication. This map is an isomorphism, since is simple. Choose with . Then and injectivity on gives . We obtain and the splitting
For a right ideal containing , the same argument splits . Repeatedly split a minimal right ideal out of the remaining summand. The remaining summands form a strictly descending chain of right ideals, so the process terminates. Thus
for pairwise nonisomorphic simple modules .
A nonzero map between simple modules is an isomorphism: its kernel and image leave no alternatives. Thus is a division ring, and for . This is the needed Schur lemma. Taking endomorphisms of the direct sum gives . Finally, left multiplication identifies with : a right-module endomorphism sends to , and composition corresponds to multiplication in , not its opposite. This proves the displayed ring isomorphism.
For the converse, the right regular module of is the direct sum of its row modules. Each row module is simple, since elementary matrices and nonzero scalar inverses send any nonzero row to any prescribed row. A finite product therefore has a finite semisimple regular module and is a right Artinian ring. The simple-module multiplicities and their endomorphism division rings recover the factors, establishing uniqueness.
A regular element of a ring is an element for which both multiplication maps are injective:
It is thus neither a left nor a right zero divisor; it need not be a unit. Here “ideals” means two-sided ideals. Put , and let denote the specified upper triangular ring.
We first establish the additional facts about the Weyl algebra needed below. Its generators satisfy
Reordering gives a spanning set . These monomials are independent. Indeed, represent the generators by multiplication and differentiation on . In a putative zero operator , choose of maximal total derivative degree. Iterated commutation with multiplication by the coordinates, times in coordinate , gives multiplication by . All other derivative terms of that total degree disappear unless they have exactly the same multiindex, and lower-degree terms disappear. Thus , and descending induction eliminates all coefficients. This proves the ordered monomial basis of a Weyl algebra and faithfulness of its polynomial action.
The Weyl algebra is a simple ring. In a nonzero two-sided ideal choose a nonzero element of least Bernstein filtration degree, where both and have degree one. Commuting it with any generator stays in the ideal and lowers that degree. Minimality therefore makes all these commutators zero. Commutation with every forces all derivative coefficients with to vanish; commutation with every then forces all partial derivatives of the remaining polynomial to vanish. In characteristic zero the element is a nonzero scalar. The ideal consequently contains . This proves simplicity of a Weyl algebra in characteristic zero. Its Jacobson radical is zero, since the radical is a proper two-sided ideal of a nonzero unital simple ring.
Use the two diagonal idempotents to isolate the entries of any ideal of . It must have the form
where all three entries are two-sided ideals of and . Conversely this condition makes the indicated set an ideal. Simplicity says that each is or , and either nonzero diagonal entry forces . Hence the five ideals of are
For a two-sided ideal of , multiplication on both sides by elementary matrices isolates any entry and moves it to any matrix position. The entries obtained form one two-sided ideal of , and the original ideal is . Thus the only ideals of are and .
Since , lies in the Jacobson radical of : for and , and has inverse . On the other hand, has zero radical, so the image of the radical in this quotient is zero. The elementary unit criterion for the Jacobson radical justifies both assertions. Therefore
The second equality follows from simplicity of .
We now construct the denominators used to describe regular matrices. A left Noetherian noncommutative domain satisfies the left Ore condition. For if for two nonzero elements, the left ideals have direct sum: in a relation the first summand lies in , all the others in , so it vanishes; cancellation of the final repeats the argument. Their finite partial sums form a strictly ascending chain, contradicting left Noetherianity. Thus , giving common nonzero left multiples and the required Ore equations. The analogous argument with right ideals gives the right Ore condition under right Noetherianity. Both hypotheses for are allowed in the question.
The Ore localization therefore embeds in a division ring . Briefly, its elements are left fractions , with nonzero , and two fractions are identified after passing to a common left denominator. Common multiples supply addition and multiplication, while cancellation in the domain makes the embedding injective. A nonzero fraction has an inverse, obtained by interchanging its numerator and denominator in the appropriate Ore fraction calculation. The right fraction construction gives the same division ring, so finite lists have common left and common right denominators.
A triangular matrix with is invertible over , with inverse
It is consequently regular over . If , then ; if , then . Hence
A full matrix is regular exactly when it is invertible over :
One implication follows immediately from invertibility. Conversely, a singular matrix over a division ring has a nonzero right kernel column and a nonzero left kernel row, by row reduction. A common right denominator turns the column into a nonzero column over , providing a right annihilator matrix over . A common left denominator does the same for the row and gives a left annihilator. Thus a singular matrix is not regular. Explicitly, for with , row elimination says that regularity is equivalent to in . If , it is equivalent to both and . A commutative determinant formula must not be substituted here.
Finally both classical left rings of quotients exist, and
To prove this directly, clear a common left denominator from all the finitely many entries of a matrix over . It becomes with in the original triangular or full ring and regular. Every original regular element becomes a unit in the corresponding ring over , by the descriptions above. For regular and in the original ring, write in this way; then , the left Ore condition. Since the denominators are regular, the additional annihilator condition for localization is automatic. This proves the matrix and triangular localization over an Ore domain assertions. In particular, the nonzero nilpotent radical of the triangular ring does not prevent its classical localization; that localization retains the triangular radical.
Choose a maximal Brauer pair for . Define its inertial quotient of a block and inertial index of a block by
Conjugacy of maximal pairs makes the index well-defined. The standard maximal-pair property used here is that is a -group. Since is cyclic, its faithful conjugation action embeds it into , so . Write and .
We use two precise structural results. Over an algebraically closed field, the basic algebra of a block with cyclic defect group is a Brauer tree algebra with edges and exceptional multiplicity . For a Brauer tree algebra with edges and exceptional multiplicity , all nonprojective indecomposable modules form the stable Auslander–Reiten quiver
These are the cyclic-defect structure theorem and the stable-quiver classification for tree algebras; we are not taking the requested numerical count as an assumption. Morita equivalence preserves simple, projective and indecomposable isomorphism classes.
There is one simple module per edge, so . The vertices of can be indexed by , , . The quotient by leaves choices of for each . With , there are nonprojective indecomposable modules. There are also indecomposable projective modules, one projective cover per simple. Therefore
This counts isomorphism classes, not multiplicities in the regular module. In the one-edge case it agrees with the Jordan chains for .
For the definition, take a finite connected tree with a cyclic order of the incident edges at every vertex and positive integer multiplicities equal to one except possibly at a distinguished vertex. Its Brauer tree path presentation has a quiver vertex for each tree edge, and successor arrows around each tree vertex, including loops for valency one. If edge has endpoints , let and be the cycles around these endpoints. The relations identify
kill , and kill paths switching between successor cycles belonging to different tree vertices. Redundant valency-one loops may be eliminated. This quotient of the path algebra is the basic Brauer tree algebra; allowing an arbitrary algebra with Morita equivalence to it does not change the module assertions. In particular, the cyclic orders and multiplicity, not merely the underlying graph, are part of the data.
For the construction, use right modules with paths multiplied left to right; equivalently use the opposite quiver for left modules, choosing orientation so radical factors follow the specified order. The indecomposable projective with top has simple socle and two uniserial radical branches meeting in that socle. The relations show that has length and factors repeated times. The other branch has length . Thus is a uniserial module of length , with factors cyclically repeated. For the Jacobson radical,
is the desired uniserial branch of a Brauer tree algebra. If an endpoint is a nonexceptional leaf, its branch is just the socle; the formula still applies.
For uniqueness, length one gives just . If and , the next factor chooses the successor arrow at uniquely, because two distinct edges cannot meet at both endpoints in a tree. Subsequent factors force the same cyclic succession. Any arrow into an edge not incident with acts as zero, because that simple does not occur. An opposite nonexceptional leaf loop is the full socle path around , of length , hence zero on modules of length at most . If an opposite leaf is exceptional, then has multiplicity one and each incident simple occurs at most once; its nilpotent self-loop is zero on that one-dimensional vertex space as well.
The remaining action is one nilpotent successor chain. Choose a top generator and let be its successive path images for . Uniseriality makes each image nonzero in its respective radical layer; these images form a basis in the basic algebra description. Their labels are , the successor arrow sends to , and all other actions vanish. Any nonzero scalar choices are absorbed by rescaling this basis. This determines the module solely by its top and length.
If and , then and is the exceptional leaf. The successor is a single loop and its action is the unique nilpotent Jordan chain of length . The other branch either enters a different edge or is a redundant socle loop and contributes nothing. Hence the prescribed uniserial module is unique up to isomorphism for every positive integer .