The additive subgroup generated by a polynomial (Q1094518)

Let \(R\) be a prime ring, \(C\) its extended centroid, \(p\in C\{x_ 1,...,x_ n\}\), the free algebra over \(C\) in \(n\) noncommuting indeterminates, \(I\) a nonzero ideal of \(R\), and \(A\) the additive subgroup of \(RC\) generated by \(\{p(a_ 1,...,a_ n)\mid a_ i\in I\}\). The main theorem of the paper shows that either \(A\subset C\), or \(A\) contains a Lie ideal of \(R\) of the form \([M,R]\) for \(M\) a nonzero ideal of \(R\), unless \(R=M_ 2(GF(2))\). This result is an improvement in two ways of a theorem of \textit{A. Kovacs} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 66, 241-246 (1977; Zbl 0376.16016)] which requires \(A\) to be a submodule over the centroid of \(R\) and which also assumes that some blended component of \(p\) multilinearizes to a noncentral polynomial.