WEAKLY TRIPOTENT RINGS

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 ${\mathbb{z}}_3$.