Bulletin of the
Korean Mathematical Society BKMS

We study the class of rings $R$ with the property that for $x\in R$ at least one of the elements $x$ and $1+x$ are tripotent. We prove that a commutative ring has this property if and only if it is a subring of a direct product $R_0\times R_1\times R_2$ such that $R_0/J(R_0)\cong \mathbb Z_2$, for every $x\in J(R_0)$ we have $x^2=2x$, $R_1$ is a Boolean ring, and $R_3$ is a subring of a direct product of copies of $\mathbb Z_3$.

Keywords: tripotent element, Boolean ring, Jacobson radical

MSC numbers: 16R50, 16U60, 16U99