As in title. Are there only finite many maximal left ideals for a left Artinian ring?
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1$\begingroup$ Could you please add some motivation? Also, see mathoverflow.net/faq#whatquestions $\endgroup$– David Roberts ♦Commented Feb 17, 2011 at 6:34
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1$\begingroup$ And please make the body of the question be complete, even if that means you have to repeat part of the title! $\endgroup$– Mariano Suárez-ÁlvarezCommented Feb 17, 2011 at 6:40
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3$\begingroup$ Have you considered this question for the ring $M_2(\mathbb C)$? $\endgroup$– EmertonCommented Feb 17, 2011 at 6:40
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$\begingroup$ (Note that the answer is yes in the commutative case: this is part of the standard structure theory for Artinian rings.) $\endgroup$– Pete L. ClarkCommented Feb 17, 2011 at 7:02
2 Answers
Consider the ring $M_2(k)$ of $2\times 2$ matrices over a field $k$, which is Artinian. Can you describe the maximal left ideals?
As indicated by Pete Clark, an Artinian commutative ring has only finitely many maximal ideals.
However, the correct generalization is not the one you seem to expect but the following: If $A$ is right-Artinian, the set of isomorphism classes of simple right-$A$-modules is finite.
This implies the commutative case. Assume that $A$ is commutative. Then, if $S$ is a simple $A$-module, there exists a maximal ideal $\mathfrak m$ of $A$ such that $S\simeq A/\mathfrak m$; moreover, $\mathfrak m$ is the annihilator of $S$ so that there is a bijection between isomorphism classes of simple $A$-modules and maximal ideals of $A$.