Generalized Lie ideals in *-prime rings (Q1204421)

This paper analyses certain subgroups, called generalized Lie ideals, of the Lie ring \(K\) of skew symmetric elements of a \(*\)-prime ring \(R\) with involution. If \(V^{(n)}(K)\) is defined inductively by setting \(V^{(1)}(K) = [V,K]\) and \(V^{(n + 1)}(K) = [V,V^{(n)}(K)]\) then the additive subgroup \(V\) of \(K\) is said to be a generalized Lie ideal (GLI) of \(K\) of index \(\leq n\) if \(V^{(n)}(K)\subseteq V\). The results are technical but the essential idea is to show that a GLI \(V\) of \(K\) must either contain \([I\cap K,K]\), for some non-zero \(*\)-ideal \(I\) of \(R\), or satisfy an alternative condition, such as nilpotency. The details differ for involutions of the first and second kind. The authors make frequent use of their earlier paper [J. Algebra 98, 14-37 (1986; Zbl 0577.16021)].