There are multiple equivalent definitions and characterizations of the Jacobson radical, but it is useful to consider the definitions based on if the ring is commutative or not.
In the commutative case, the Jacobson radical of a commutative ring R is defined as1 the intersection of all maximal ideals m {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {m}}} . If we denote Specm R as the set of all maximal ideals in R then
J ( R ) = ⋂ m ∈ Specm R m {\displaystyle \mathrm {J} (R)=\bigcap _{{\mathfrak {m}}\,\in \,\operatorname {Specm} R}{\mathfrak {m}}}
This definition can be used for explicit calculations in a number of simple cases, such as for local rings (R, p {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {p}}} ), which have a unique maximal ideal, Artinian rings, and products thereof. See the examples section for explicit computations.
For a general ring with unity R, the Jacobson radical J(R) is defined as the ideal of all elements r ∈ R such that rM = 0 whenever M is a simple R-module. That is, J ( R ) = { r ∈ R ∣ r M = 0 for all M simple } . {\displaystyle \mathrm {J} (R)=\{r\in R\mid rM=0{\text{ for all }}M{\text{ simple}}\}.} This is equivalent to the definition in the commutative case for a commutative ring R because the simple modules over a commutative ring are of the form R / m {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {m}}} for some maximal ideal m {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {m}}} of R, and the annihilators of R / m {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {m}}} in R are precisely the elements of m {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {m}}} , i.e. AnnR(R / m {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {m}}} ) = m {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {m}}} .
Understanding the Jacobson radical lies in a few different cases: namely its applications and the resulting geometric interpretations, and its algebraic interpretations.
See also: Nakayama's lemma § Geometric interpretation
Although Jacobson originally introduced his radical as a technique for building a theory of radicals for arbitrary rings, one of the motivating reasons for why the Jacobson radical is considered in the commutative case is because of its appearance in Nakayama's lemma. This lemma is a technical tool for studying finitely generated modules over commutative rings that has an easy geometric interpretation: If we have a vector bundle E → X over a topological space X, and pick a point p ∈ X, then any basis of E|p can be extended to a basis of sections of E|U → U for some neighborhood p ∈ U ⊆ X.
Another application is in the case of finitely generated commutative rings of the form R = k [ x 1 , … , x n ] / I {\textstyle R=k[x_{1},\ldots ,x_{n}]\,/\,I} for some base ring k (such as a field, or the ring of integers). In this case the nilradical and the Jacobson radical coincide. This means we could interpret the Jacobson radical as a measure for how far the ideal I defining the ring R is from defining the ring of functions on an algebraic variety because of the Hilbert Nullstellensatz theorem. This is because algebraic varieties cannot have a ring of functions with infinitesimals: this is a structure that is only considered in scheme theory.
The Jacobson radical of a ring has various internal and external characterizations. The following equivalences appear in many noncommutative algebra texts such as Anderson & Fuller 1992, §15, Isaacs 1994, §13B, and Lam 2001, Ch 2.
The following are equivalent characterizations of the Jacobson radical in rings with unity (characterizations for rings without unity are given immediately afterward):
For rings without unity it is possible to have R = J(R); however, the equation J(R / J(R)) = {0} still holds. The following are equivalent characterizations of J(R) for rings without unity:11
"Section 10.18 (0AMD): The Jacobson radical of a ring—The Stacks project". stacks.math.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-24. https://stacks.math.columbia.edu/tag/0AMD ↩
Isaacs 1994, p. 182 - Isaacs, I. M. (1994), Algebra: a graduate course (1st ed.), Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, ISBN 0-534-19002-2 ↩
Isaacs 1994, p. 173, Problem 12.5 - Isaacs, I. M. (1994), Algebra: a graduate course (1st ed.), Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, ISBN 0-534-19002-2 ↩
Lam 2001, p. 46, Ex. 3.15 - Lam, T. Y. (2001), A First Course in Noncommutative Rings, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 131 (2 ed.), Springer-Verlag, pp. xx+385, doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-8616-0, ISBN 0-387-95183-0, MR 1838439 https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-8616-0 ↩
Isaacs 1994, p. 180, Corollary 13.4 - Isaacs, I. M. (1994), Algebra: a graduate course (1st ed.), Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, ISBN 0-534-19002-2 ↩
Isaacs 1994, p. 181 - Isaacs, I. M. (1994), Algebra: a graduate course (1st ed.), Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, ISBN 0-534-19002-2 ↩
Lam 2001, p. 50. - Lam, T. Y. (2001), A First Course in Noncommutative Rings, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 131 (2 ed.), Springer-Verlag, pp. xx+385, doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-8616-0, ISBN 0-387-95183-0, MR 1838439 https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-8616-0 ↩
Lam 2001, p. 63 - Lam, T. Y. (2001), A First Course in Noncommutative Rings, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 131 (2 ed.), Springer-Verlag, pp. xx+385, doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-8616-0, ISBN 0-387-95183-0, MR 1838439 https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-8616-0 ↩
Smoktunowicz 2006, p. 260, §5 - Smoktunowicz, Agata (2006), "Some results in noncommutative ring theory", International Congress of Mathematicians, Vol. II (PDF), European Mathematical Society, pp. 259–269, ISBN 978-3-03719-022-7, MR 2275597, archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-09, retrieved 2014-12-31 https://web.archive.org/web/20170809170625/http://www.icm2006.org/proceedings/Vol_II/contents/ICM_Vol_2_12.pdf ↩
Proof: Since the factors Tu / Tu−1 are simple right R-modules, right multiplication by any element of J(R) annihilates these factors. In other words, (Tu / Tu−1) ⋅ J(R) = 0, whence Tu · J(R) ⊆ Tu−1. Consequently, induction over i shows that all nonnegative integers i and u (for which the following makes sense) satisfy Tu ⋅ (J(R))i ⊆ Tu−i. Applying this to u = i = k yields the result. /wiki/Factor_module ↩