Units, zero-divisors and idempotents in rings graded by torsion-free groups

Abstract

The three famous problems concerning units, zero-divisors and idempotents in group rings of torsion-free groups, commonly attributed to I. Kaplansky, have been around for more than 60 years and still remain open in characteristic zero. In this article, we introduce the corresponding problems in the considerably more general context of arbitrary rings graded by torsion-free groups. For natural reasons, we will restrict our attention to rings without non-trivial homogeneous zero-divisors with respect to the given grading. We provide a partial solution to the extended problems by solving them for rings graded by unique product groups. We also show that the extended problems exhibit the same (potential) hierarchy as the classical problems for group rings. Furthermore, a ring which is graded by an arbitrary torsion-free group is shown to be indecomposable, and to have no non-trivial central zero-divisor and no non-homogeneous central unit. We also present generalizations of the classical group ring conjectures.