Nilpotent Product Probability of Finite Rings

Abstract

For a finite ring $R$, we investigate the probability that the product of two randomly chosen elements in $R$ is nilpotent, which we call the nilpotent product probability (NPP) of $R$ and denote by $P_{nil}(R)$. We derive bounds for $P_{nil}(R)$ that depend on the structure of $R$, and prove that among all commutative rings with identity, the class of local rings with residue field ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ attains the maximum value of NPP, which is equal to $3/4$. Further, we determine the set of all values of NPP for commutative rings with identity and classify all rings attaining those values. Finally, we investigate the relationship between NPP of $R$ and NPP of some subrings of the matrix ring over $R$.