Sums of units in finite rings and applications to Cayley graphs

Abstract

The question of whether a ring is additively generated by its units has been studied from several perspectives in ring theory and algebraic graph theory. In this paper, we investigate this problem for finite rings, not necessarily commutative, and relate it to the connectedness of gcd-graphs, the existence of perfect state transfer, and the solvability of certain equations over finite fields. Additionally, we discuss a generalization of this question in which only certain normalized units are allowed in the generating set. Our work intersects algebra, number theory, and graph theory, and may be of interest to a broad audience.