A semiprime ring $R$ is called a $\ast$-ring if the factor ring $R/I$ is in the prime radical for every nonzero ideal $I$ of $R$. A long-standing open question posed by Gardner asks whether the prime radical coincides with the upper radical $U(\ast _{k})$ generated by the essential cover of the class of all $\ast$-rings. This question is related to many other open questions in radical theory which makes studying properties of $U(\ast _{k})$ worthwhile. We show that $U(\ast _{k})$ is an N-radical and that it coincides with the prime radical if and only if it is complemented in the lattice $\mathbb{L}_{N}$ of all N-radicals. Along the way, we show how to establish left hereditariness and left strongness of important upper radicals and give a complete description of all the complemented elements in $\mathbb{L}_{N}$.

A radical α has the Amitsur property if α(A[x])=(α(A[x])∩A)[x] for all rings A. For rings R⊆S with the same unity, we call S a finite centralizing extension of R if there exist b1,b2,…,bt∈S such that S=b1R+b2R+⋯+btR and bir=rbi for all r∈R and i=1,2,…,t. A radical α is FCE-friendly if α(S)∩R⊆α(R) for any finite centralizing extension S of a ring R. We show that if α is a supernilpotent radical whose semisimple class contains the ring ℤ of all integers and α is FCE-friendly, then α has the Amitsur property. In this way the Amitsur property of many well-known radicals such as the prime radical, the Jacobson radical, the Brown–McCoy radical, the antisimple radical and the Behrens radical can be established. Moreover, applying this condition, we will show that the upper radical 𝒰(*k) generated by the essential cover *k of the class * of all *-rings has the Amitsur property and 𝒰(*k)(A[x])=𝒰(*k)(A)[x], where a semiprime ring R is called a *-ring if the factor ring R/I is prime radical for every nonzero ideal I of R. The importance of *-rings stems from the fact that a *-ring A is Jacobson semisimple if and only if A is a primitive ring.

Let ρ be a supernilpotent radical. Let ρ* be the class of all rings A such that either A is a simple ring in ρ or the factor ring A/I is in ρ for every nonzero ideal I of A and every minimal ideal M of A is in ρ. Let be the lower radical determined by ρ* and let ρφ denote the upper radical determined by the class of all subdirectly irreducible rings with ρ-semisimple hearts. Le Roux and Heyman proved that is a supernilpotent radical with and they asked whether if ρ is replaced by β, ℒ , 𝒩 or 𝒥 , where β, ℒ , 𝒩 and 𝒥 denote the Baer, the Levitzki, the Koethe and the Jacobson radical, respectively. In the present paper we will give a negative answer to this question by showing that if ρ is a supernilpotent radical whose semisimple class contains a nonzero nonsimple * -ring without minimal ideals, then is a nonspecial radical and consequently . We recall that a prime ring A is a * -ring if A/I is in β for every .