Subring

In mathematics, a subring of R is a subset of a ring that is itself a ring when binary operations of addition and multiplication on R are restricted to the subset, and which shares the same multiplicative identity as R. For those who define rings without requiring the existence of a multiplicative identity, a subring of R is just a subset of R that is a ring for the operations of R (this does imply it contains the additive identity of R). The latter gives a strictly weaker condition, even for rings that do have a multiplicative identity, so that for instance all ideals become subrings (and they may have a multiplicative identity that differs from the one of R). With definition requiring a multiplicative identity (which is used in this article), the only ideal of R that is a subring of R is R itself.

A subring of a ring (R, +, ∗, 0, 1) is a subset S of R that preserves the structure of the ring, i.e. a ring (S, +, ∗, 0, 1) with S ⊆ R. Equivalently, it is both a subgroup of (R, +, 0) and a submonoid of (R, ∗, 1).

The ring Z and its quotients Z/nZ have no subrings (with multiplicative identity) other than the full ring.

Every ring has a unique smallest subring, isomorphic to some ring Z/nZ with n a nonnegative integer (see characteristic). The integers Z correspond to n = 0 in this statement, since Z is isomorphic to Z/0Z.

The subring test is a theorem that states that for any ring R, a subset of R is a subring if it is closed under multiplication and subtraction, and contains the additive identity of R.

As an example, the ring Z of integers is a subring of the field of real numbers and also a subring of the ring of polynomials Z[X].

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