Zero-divisor graphs and zero-divisor functors

Abstract

Inspired by a very recent work of A. Đurić, S. Jevđenić and N. Stopar, we introduce a new definition of zero-divisor graphs attached to rings that includes all of the classical definitions already known in the literature. We provide an interpretation of such graphs by means of a functor that we call zero-divisor functor and which is associated with a family of special equivalence relations fixed beforehand. We thus recover and generalize many known results for zero-divisor graphs and provide a framework which might be useful for further investigations on this topic.