TY - JOUR T1 - On the equation $a^{2}x=a$ in unital rings AU - Călugăreanu, Grigore AU - Pop, Horia F. PY - 2025 DA - July Y2 - 2024 DO - 10.24330/ieja.1578725 JF - International Electronic Journal of Algebra JO - IEJA PB - Abdullah HARMANCI WT - DergiPark SN - 1306-6048 SP - 37 EP - 51 VL - 38 IS - 38 LA - en AB - In an arbitrary ring, the equation in the title defines the left strongly regular elements. Elements that are both left and right strongly regular are simply called strongly regular. If all elements of a ring are left strongly regular, then they are, in fact, strongly regular and this is the definition of strongly regular rings.We provide a characterization of when a left strongly regular element is indeed strongly regular, based on an intrinsic condition. While we show that it is not possible to give $2\times 2$ non-examples over $\mathbb{Z}$ or in certain matrix rings over $\mathbb{Z}_{n}$ for $n\in \{8,9,16\}$, we present two examples by George Bergman: a left strongly regular element that is not regular and a regular, left strongly regular element that is not strongly regular.Further, we prove results for left strongly regular (square) matrices over various types of rings and propose a conjecture, strongly supported by computational evidence: over commutative rings, left strongly regular matrices are strongly regular. KW - Left strongly regular element KW - strongly regular ring KW - 2x2 matrix KW - regular element CR - R. F. Arens and I. Kaplansky, Topological representation of algebras, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., 63 (1948), 457-481. CR - G. Azumaya, Strongly $\pi$-regular rings, J. Fac. Sci. Hokkaido Univ. Ser. I, 13 (1954), 34-39. CR - G. M. Bergman, The diamond lemma for ring theory, Adv. in Math., 29(2) (1978), 178-218. CR - W. C. Brown, Matrices Over Commutative Rings, Monographs and Textbooks in Pure and Applied Mathematics, 169, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1993. CR - G. Calugareanu, Tripotents: a class of strongly clean elements in rings, An. Stiint. Univ. "Ovidius" Constanta Ser. Mat., 26(1) (2018), 69-80. CR - G. Calugareanu, The formula $ABA=Tr(AB)A$ for matrices, Beitr. Algebra Geom., (2024), https://doi.org/10.1007/s13366-024-00756-9. CR - G. Ehrlich, Unit-regular rings, Portugal. Math., 27 (1968), 209-212. CR - W. K. Nicholson, Strongly clean rings and Fitting's lemma, Comm. Algebra, 27(8) (1999), 3583-3592. UR - https://doi.org/10.24330/ieja.1578725 L1 - https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/4337315 ER -