Wedderburn-Artin theorem

A theorem which fully describes the structure of associative Artinian rings (cf. Artinian ring) without nilpotent ideals. An associative ring $R$ (cf. Associative rings and algebras) has the minimum condition for right ideals and has no nilpotent ideals if and only if $R$ is the direct sum of a finite number of ideals, each of which is isomorphic to a complete ring of matrices of finite order over a suitable skew-field; this decomposition into a direct sum is unique apart from the ordering of its terms. This theorem was first obtained by J. Wedderburn for finite-dimensional algebras over a field, and was proved by E. Artin [1] in its final formulation.

References

[1]	E. Artin, "The influence of J.H.M. Wedderburn on the development of modern algebra" Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. , 56 (1950) pp. 65–72

References

[a1]	J.H.M. Wedderburn, "Lectures on matrices" , Dover, reprint (1964)
[a2]	C. Faith, "Algebra: rings, modules, and categories" , 1 , Springer (1973) pp. 380, 369
[a3]	P.M. Cohn, "Algebra" , 2 , Wiley (1989) pp. 174ff