Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 February 2020
Let $X$ be a nonempty set and
${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ the power set of
$X$. The aim of this paper is to identify the unital subrings of
${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ and to compute its cardinality when it is finite. It is proved that any topology
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$ on
$X$ such that
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}^{c}$, where
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}^{c}=\{U^{c}\mid U\in \unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}\}$, is a unital subring of
${\mathcal{P}}(X)$. It is also shown that
$X$ is finite if and only if any unital subring of
${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is a topology
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$ on
$X$ such that
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}^{c}$ if and only if the set of unital subrings of
${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is finite. As a consequence, if
$X$ is finite with cardinality
$n\geq 2$, then the number of unital subrings of
${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is equal to the
$n$th Bell number and the supremum of the lengths of chains of unital subalgebras of
${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is equal to
$n-1$.
The first author thanks the University of Sharjah for funding Research Project No. 1902144081.