Primitive Ideal

In mathematics, a left primitive ideal in ring theory is the annihilator of a simple left module. A right primitive ideal is defined similarly. Note that (despite the name) left and right primitive ideals are always two-sided ideals.

The quotient of a ring by a left primitive ideal is a left primitive ring.

Famous quotes containing the words primitive and/or ideal:

    In some ways being a parent is like being an anthropologist who is studying a primitive and isolated tribe by living with them.... To understand the beauty of child development, we must shed some of our socialization as adults and learn how to communicate with children on their own terms, just as an anthropologist must learn how to communicate with that primitive tribe.
    Lawrence Kutner (20th century)

    But I must needs take my petulance, contrasting it with my accustomed morning hopefulness, as a sign of the ageing of appetite, of a decay in the very capacity of enjoyment. We need some imaginative stimulus, some not impossible ideal which may shape vague hope, and transform it into effective desire, to carry us year after year, without disgust, through the routine- work which is so large a part of life.
    Walter Pater (1839–1894)