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This question was inspired by Qiaochu's recent question, Which commutative groups are the group of units of some field?Which commutative groups are the group of units of some field? - my question is close to being the inverse of it.

As mentioned here, given a ring $R$, the functor $GrpRing:Grp\rightarrow R$-$Alg$ taking a group $G$ to the group ring $R[G]$ is left adjoint to the functor $GrpUnits:R$-$Alg\rightarrow Grp$ taking an $R$-algebra to its group of units. What is the essential image of $GrpRing$, i.e., which $R$-algebras are isomorphic to the group ring of some group over $R$?

One might ask more generally, when is a ring $R$ a group ring over some ring, not fixed at the outset? (Obviously, any ring $R$ is isomorphic to $R[1]$, the group ring of the trivial group over itself, but let's exclude this trivial case.)

This question was inspired by Qiaochu's recent question, Which commutative groups are the group of units of some field? - my question is close to being the inverse of it.

As mentioned here, given a ring $R$, the functor $GrpRing:Grp\rightarrow R$-$Alg$ taking a group $G$ to the group ring $R[G]$ is left adjoint to the functor $GrpUnits:R$-$Alg\rightarrow Grp$ taking an $R$-algebra to its group of units. What is the essential image of $GrpRing$, i.e., which $R$-algebras are isomorphic to the group ring of some group over $R$?

One might ask more generally, when is a ring $R$ a group ring over some ring, not fixed at the outset? (Obviously, any ring $R$ is isomorphic to $R[1]$, the group ring of the trivial group over itself, but let's exclude this trivial case.)

This question was inspired by Qiaochu's recent question, Which commutative groups are the group of units of some field? - my question is close to being the inverse of it.

As mentioned here, given a ring $R$, the functor $GrpRing:Grp\rightarrow R$-$Alg$ taking a group $G$ to the group ring $R[G]$ is left adjoint to the functor $GrpUnits:R$-$Alg\rightarrow Grp$ taking an $R$-algebra to its group of units. What is the essential image of $GrpRing$, i.e., which $R$-algebras are isomorphic to the group ring of some group over $R$?

One might ask more generally, when is a ring $R$ a group ring over some ring, not fixed at the outset? (Obviously, any ring $R$ is isomorphic to $R[1]$, the group ring of the trivial group over itself, but let's exclude this trivial case.)

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Zev Chonoles
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This question was inspired by Qiaochu's recent question, Which commutative groups are the group of units of some field? - my question is close to being the inverse of it.

As mentioned here, given a ring $R$, the functor $GrpRing:Grp\rightarrow R$-$Alg$ taking a group $G$ to the group ring $R[G]$ is left adjoint to the functor $GrpUnits:R$-$Alg\rightarrow Grp$ taking an $R$-algebra to its group of units. What is the "image"essential image of $GrpRing$, i.e., which $R$-algebras are (isomorphicisomorphic to) the group ring of some group over $R$?

One might ask more generally, when is a ring $R$ a group ring over some ring, not fixed at the outset? (Obviously, any ring $R$ is isomorphic to $R[1]$, the group ring of the trivial group over itself, but let's exclude this trivial case.)

This question was inspired by Qiaochu's recent question, Which commutative groups are the group of units of some field? - my question is close to being the inverse of it.

As mentioned here, given a ring $R$, the functor $GrpRing:Grp\rightarrow R$-$Alg$ taking a group $G$ to the group ring $R[G]$ is left adjoint to the functor $GrpUnits:R$-$Alg\rightarrow Grp$ taking an $R$-algebra to its group of units. What is the "image" of $GrpRing$, i.e., which $R$-algebras are (isomorphic to) the group ring of some group over $R$?

One might ask more generally, when is a ring $R$ a group ring over some ring, not fixed at the outset? (Obviously, any ring $R$ is isomorphic to $R[1]$, the group ring of the trivial group over itself, but let's exclude this trivial case.)

This question was inspired by Qiaochu's recent question, Which commutative groups are the group of units of some field? - my question is close to being the inverse of it.

As mentioned here, given a ring $R$, the functor $GrpRing:Grp\rightarrow R$-$Alg$ taking a group $G$ to the group ring $R[G]$ is left adjoint to the functor $GrpUnits:R$-$Alg\rightarrow Grp$ taking an $R$-algebra to its group of units. What is the essential image of $GrpRing$, i.e., which $R$-algebras are isomorphic to the group ring of some group over $R$?

One might ask more generally, when is a ring $R$ a group ring over some ring, not fixed at the outset? (Obviously, any ring $R$ is isomorphic to $R[1]$, the group ring of the trivial group over itself, but let's exclude this trivial case.)

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Zev Chonoles
  • 6.8k
  • 4
  • 54
  • 92

Which R-algebras are the group ring of some group over a ring R?

This question was inspired by Qiaochu's recent question, Which commutative groups are the group of units of some field? - my question is close to being the inverse of it.

As mentioned here, given a ring $R$, the functor $GrpRing:Grp\rightarrow R$-$Alg$ taking a group $G$ to the group ring $R[G]$ is left adjoint to the functor $GrpUnits:R$-$Alg\rightarrow Grp$ taking an $R$-algebra to its group of units. What is the "image" of $GrpRing$, i.e., which $R$-algebras are (isomorphic to) the group ring of some group over $R$?

One might ask more generally, when is a ring $R$ a group ring over some ring, not fixed at the outset? (Obviously, any ring $R$ is isomorphic to $R[1]$, the group ring of the trivial group over itself, but let's exclude this trivial case.)