Isomorphisms between Morita context rings

Abstract

Let $(R, S,_R\negthinspace M_S,_S\negthinspace N_R, f, g)$ be a general Morita context, and let $T=[{cc} R &_RM_S_SN_R & S]$ be the ring associated with this context. Similarly, let $T'=[{cc} R' & M' N' & S']$ be another Morita context ring. We study the set ${Iso}(T,T')$ of ring isomorphisms from $T$ to $T'$. Our interest in this problem is motivated by: (i) the problem to determine the automorphism group of the ring $T$, and (ii) the recovery of the non-diagonal tiles problem for this type of generalized matrix rings. We introduce two classes of isomorphisms from $T$ to $T'$, the disjoint union of which is denoted by ${Iso}_0(T,T')$. We describe ${Iso}_0(T,T')$ by using the $\Z$-graded ring structure of $T$ and $T'$. Our main result characterizes ${Iso}_0(T,T')$ as the set consisting of all semigraded isomorphisms and all anti-semigraded isomorphisms from $T$ to $T'$, provided that the rings $R'$ and $S'$ are indecomposable and at least one of $M'$ and $N'$ is nonzero; in particular ${Iso}_0(T,T')$ contains all graded isomorphisms and all anti-graded isomorphisms from $T$ to $T'$. We also present a situation where ${Iso}_0(T,T')={Iso}(T,T')$. This is in the case where $R,S,R'$ and $S'$ are rings having only trivial idempotents and all the Morita maps are zero. In particular, this shows that the group of automorphisms of $T$ is completely determined.