Inalgebra, a unitorinvertible element[a] of a ring is an invertible element for the multiplication of the ring. That is, an element u of a ring R is a unit if there exists vinR such that where 1 is the multiplicative identity; the element v is unique for this property and is called the multiplicative inverseofu.[1][2] The set of units of R forms a group R× under multiplication, called the group of unitsorunit groupofR.[b] Other notations for the unit group are R∗, U(R), and E(R) (from the German term Einheit).
Less commonly, the term unit is sometimes used to refer to the element 1 of the ring, in expressions like ring with a unitorunit ring, and also unit matrix. Because of this ambiguity, 1 is more commonly called the "unity" or the "identity" of the ring, and the phrases "ring with unity" or a "ring with identity" may be used to emphasize that one is considering a ring instead of a rng.
The multiplicative identity 1 and its additive inverse −1 are always units. More generally, any root of unity in a ring R is a unit: if rn = 1, then rn−1 is a multiplicative inverse of r. In a nonzero ring, the element 0 is not a unit, so R× is not closed under addition. A nonzero ring R in which every nonzero element is a unit (that is, R× = R ∖ {0}) is called a division ring (or a skew-field). A commutative division ring is called a field. For example, the unit group of the field of real numbers RisR ∖ {0}.
In the ring of integers Z, the only units are 1 and −1.
In the ring Z/nZofintegers modulo n, the units are the congruence classes (mod n) represented by integers coprimeton. They constitute the multiplicative group of integers modulo n.
In the ring Z[√3] obtained by adjoining the quadratic integer √3toZ, one has (2 + √3)(2 − √3) = 1, so 2 + √3 is a unit, and so are its powers, so Z[√3] has infinitely many units.
More generally, for the ring of integers R in a number field F, Dirichlet's unit theorem states that R× is isomorphic to the group where is the (finite, cyclic) group of roots of unity in R and n, the rank of the unit group, is where are the number of real embeddings and the number of pairs of complex embeddings of F, respectively.
This recovers the Z[√3] example: The unit group of (the ring of integers of) a real quadratic field is infinite of rank 1, since .
For a commutative ring R, the units of the polynomial ring R[x] are the polynomials such that a0 is a unit in R and the remaining coefficients are nilpotent, i.e., satisfy for some N.[4] In particular, if R is a domain (or more generally reduced), then the units of R[x] are the units of R. The units of the power series ring are the power series such that a0 is a unit in R.[5]
The unit group of the ring Mn(R)ofn × n matrices over a ring R is the group GLn(R)ofinvertible matrices. For a commutative ring R, an element AofMn(R) is invertible if and only if the determinantofA is invertible in R. In that case, A−1 can be given explicitly in terms of the adjugate matrix.
For elements x and y in a ring R, if is invertible, then is invertible with inverse ;[6] this formula can be guessed, but not proved, by the following calculation in a ring of noncommutative power series: See Hua's identity for similar results.
Acommutative ring is a local ringifR ∖ R× is a maximal ideal.
As it turns out, if R ∖ R× is an ideal, then it is necessarily a maximal ideal and Rislocal since a maximal ideal is disjoint from R×.
IfR is a finite field, then R× is a cyclic group of order |R| − 1.
Every ring homomorphism f : R → S induces a group homomorphism R× → S×, since f maps units to units. In fact, the formation of the unit group defines a functor from the category of rings to the category of groups. This functor has a left adjoint which is the integral group ring construction.[7]
The group scheme is isomorphic to the multiplicative group scheme over any base, so for any commutative ring R, the groups and are canonically isomorphic to U(R). Note that the functor (that is, R ↦ U(R)) is representable in the sense: for commutative rings R (this for instance follows from the aforementioned adjoint relation with the group ring construction). Explicitly this means that there is a natural bijection between the set of the ring homomorphisms and the set of unit elements of R (in contrast, represents the additive group , the forgetful functor from the category of commutative rings to the category of abelian groups).
Suppose that R is commutative. Elements r and sofR are called associate if there exists a unit uinR such that r = us; then write r ~ s. In any ring, pairs of additive inverse elements[c] x and −x are associate, since any ring includes the unit −1. For example, 6 and −6 are associate in Z. In general, ~ is an equivalence relationonR.
Associatedness can also be described in terms of the actionofR×onR via multiplication: Two elements of R are associate if they are in the same R×-orbit.
In an integral domain, the set of associates of a given nonzero element has the same cardinalityasR×.
The equivalence relation ~ can be viewed as any one of Green's semigroup relations specialized to the multiplicative semigroup of a commutative ring R.