Products of idempotent matrices over integral domains (Q1017629)

A ring \(R\) has the idempotent matrices property (IMP) if every square singular matrix over \(R\) is a product of idempotent matrices. The author shows that not every integral domain has the IMP and that if a projective free ring has the IMP then it must be a Bézout domain. He also shows that a principal ideal domain has the IMP if and only if every fraction \(a/b\) with \(b\neq 0\) has a finite continued fraction expansion.