Closed sets of real roots in Kac-Moody root systems

It is known that the inverse of an invertible real square matrix satisfying the treeangle property, is a treediagonal matrix. A converse statement also holds. We show that the verbatim analogues are not true for the Moore-Penrose inverse, and obtain the precise structure of graphs corresponding to the Moore-Penrose inverse of matrices possessing the treeangle property.

math.RA↗

arXiv2026

Normal Quaternionic Matrices and Finitely Generated Witt Rings

We present a new approach to verify the Elementary Type Conjecture for abstract Witt rings with small number of square classes. To do so, we make use of an abstract analogue of the 2-torsion part of the Brauer group. We develop a description of the entire structure of an abstract Witt ring with $2^n$ square classes in terms of a unique $n\times n$ matrix satisfying a small additional condition that particularly holds for Witt rings of fields. Via computational search, we find all these matrices for $n$ up to $7$. This verifies that all Witt rings of fields with up to $128$ square classes are of elementary type.

math.RA↗

arXiv2026

An introduction to the algebra of rings and fields

This is an introduction to rings and fields, written for a quarter-long undergraduate course. It includes the basic properties of ideals, modules, algebras and polynomials, the constructions of ring extensions and finite fields, some number-theoretical applications (such as a proof of quadratic reciprocity and Jacobsthal's formulas for $p = x^2 + y^2$), and tastes of Gröbner bases and the Smith normal form. Familiarity with groups and vector spaces is assumed, though no deep results from either theory are used. Over 250 exercises are included (mostly without solutions).

math.RA↗