Abstract
For a ring endomorphism $\sigma$ of a ring R, J. Krempa called $\sigma$ a rigid endomorphism if a$\sigma$(a)=0 implies a=0 for a ${\in}$R. A ring R is called rigid if there exists a rigid endomorphism of R. In this paper, we extend the (J'-rigid property of a ring R to the upper nilradical $N_{r}$(R) of R. For an endomorphism R and the upper nilradical $N_{r}$(R) of a ring R, we introduce the condition (*): $N_{r}$(R) is a $\sigma$-ideal of R and a$\sigma$(a) ${\in}$ $N_{r}$(R) implies a ${\in}$ $N_{r}$(R) for a ${\in}$ R. We study characterizations of a ring R with an endomorphism $\sigma$ satisfying the condition (*), and we investigate their related properties. The connections between the upper nilradical of R and the upper nilradical of the skew power series ring R[[$\chi$;$\sigma$]] of R are also investigated.ated.