Decomposing Finite $\mathbb{Z}$-Algebras

Abstract

For a finite $\mathbb{Z}$-algebra $R$, i.e., for a ring which is not necessarily associative or unitary, but whose additive group is finitely generated, we construct a decomposition of $R/{\rm Ann}(R)$ into directly indecomposable factors under weak hypotheses. The method is based on constructing and decomposing a ring of scalars $S$, and then lifting the decomposition of $S$ to the bilinear map given by the multiplication of $R$, and finally to $R/{\rm Ann}(R)$. All steps of the construction are given as explicit algorithms and it is shown that the entire procedure has a probabilistic polynomial time complexity in the bit size of the input, except for the possible need to calculate the prime factorization of one integer. In particular, in the case when ${\rm Ann}(R) = 0$, these algorithms compute a direct decomposition of $R$ into directly indecomposable factors.