ABSTRACT
A ring R is called an n-clean (resp. Σ-clean) ring if every element in R is n-clean (resp. Σ-clean). Clean rings are 1-clean and hence are Σ-clean. An example shows that there exists a 2-clean ring that is not clean. This shows that Σ-clean rings are a proper generalization of clean rings. The group ring ℤ(p) G with G a cyclic group of order 3 is proved to be Σ-clean. The m× m matrix ring M m (R) over an n-clean ring is n-clean, and the m×m (m>1) matrix ring M m (R) over any ring is Σ-clean. Additionally, rings satisfying a weakly unit 1-stable range were introduced. Rings satisfying weakly unit 1-stable range are left-right symmetric and are generalizations of abelian π-regular rings, abelian clean rings, and rings satisfying unit 1-stable range. A ring R satisfies a weakly unit 1-stable range if and only if whenever a 1 R + ˙˙˙ a m R = dR, with m ≥ 2, a 1,…, a m, d ∈ R, there exist u 1 ∈ U(R) and u 2,…, u m ∈ W(R) such that a 1 u 1 + ċ a m u m = Rd.
Mathematics Subject Classification:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The first author would like to thank the referees for their valuable suggestions. This work was supported partly by the Doctorate Foundation of the China Education Ministry (Grant No. 20020284009).