\(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-graded tensor products of p.i. algebras. (Q2569438)

The importance of the T-prime algebras is well known; these algebras are the building blocks of the T-ideals in characteristic 0. According to the theory developed by \textit{A. R. Kemer} [Ideals of identities of associative algebras (1991; Zbl 0732.16001)], when the base field is of characteristic 0, the only nontrivial T-prime T-ideals are those of the following algebras: \(M_n(K)\) and \(M_n(E)\), the \(n\times n\) matrices over the field \(K\) and over the Grassmann algebra \(E\), respectively, and a series of subalgebras of \(M_n(E)\), called \(M_{a,b}(E)\). Furthermore, Kemer described the behaviour of the tensor products of such algebras. The paper under review studies graded (or super-commutative) tensor products of such algebras. Here the gradings are with the cyclic group of order two, hence called 2-gradings. The authors first prove that if \(A\) and \(B\) are PI algebras and both are 2-graded then their graded tensor product is also PI. Several of the theorems proved in the paper depend on the notion of a `regular algebra'. It is an algebra \(U=U_1+\cdots+U_r\), a direct sum decomposition where the \(U_i\) are vector subspaces of \(U\). Furthermore for any (ordered) sequence \((i_1,\dots,i_n)\), \(1\leq i_j\leq r\), there are \(x_j\in U_{i_j}\) such that \(x_1\cdots x_n\neq 0\) in \(U\). Finally one requires that if \(x\in U_i\), \(y\in U_j\) it holds \(xy=\varepsilon_{ij}^Uyx\) where \(\varepsilon_{ij}^U\) depends on \(i\) and \(j\) only. If \(U\) is regular (with respect to the given decomposition) one forms the \(r\times r\) matrix \(M^U=(e_{ij}^U)\). An interesting and fundamental result proved in the paper is Theorem 3.1. It states that if \(U\) and \(V\) are two regular algebras with decompositions of the same length and matrices \(M^U\) and \(M^V\), respectively, and if \(M^V= P^{-1}M^UP\) for some permutation matrix \(P\) then \(U\) and \(V\) satisfy the same multilinear identities. In particular, in characteristic 0, \(U\) and \(V\) are PI equivalent. Furthermore, the authors describe the multilinear PI equivalences under tensor products for the T-prime algebras. Several directions of possible generalizations are discussed as well.