annihilator

In mathematics, the annihilator of a subset of a module over a ring is the ideal formed by the elements of the ring that give always zero when multiplied by each element of . Over an integral domain, a module that has a nonzero annihilator is a torsion module, and a finitely generated torsion module has a nonzero annihilator. The above definition applies also in the case noncommutative rings, where the left annihilator of a left module is a left ideal, and the right-annihilator, of a right module is a right ideal. Definitions Let R be a ring, and let M be a left R-module. Choose a non-empty subset S of M. The annihilator of S, denoted AnnR(S), is the set of all elements r in R such that, for all s in S, . In set notation, for all