Primitivity of finitely presented monomial algebras. (Q1013104)

The authors study prime monomial algebras over a field \(K\). Given a subring \(B\) of a ring \(A\) the authors introduce algebras which are nearly free as left \(B\)-modules and prove the following theorem. Theorem 1 (Proposition 3.2). Let \(A\) be a prime algebra and suppose that \(B\) is a right primitive subalgebra of \(A\) such that: 1. \(A\) is nearly free as a left \(B\)-module. 2. Every nonzero two-sided ideal of \(A\) has the property that \(I\cap B\) is nonzero. -- Then \(A\) is right primitive. Next they prove the following theorem on automaton algebras. Theorem 2 (Theorem 4.1). Let \(K\) be a field and let \(A\) be a prime automaton algebra over \(K\). Then \(A\) is either primitive or \(A\) satisfies a polynomial identity. Next, they use the well known result that any finitely presented algebra is an automaton algebra [see \textit{A. Ya. Belov}, \textit{V. V. Borisenko} and \textit{V. N. Latyshev}, J. Math. Sci., New York 87, No. 3, 3463-3575 (1997; Zbl 0927.16018)] to obtain the following result. Theorem 3 (Theorem 1.2). Let \(K\) be a field and let \(A\) be a prime finitely presented monomial \(K\)-algebra. Then \(A\) is either primitive or \(A\) satisfies a polynomial identity. This proves a special case of a conjecture of the first author and A. Smoktunowicz. Another proof of Theorem 1.2 was later independently obtained by \textit{J. Okniński} [J. Algebra 320, No. 8, 3199-3205 (2008; Zbl 1196.16025)].