On generalized functional identities on prime rings (Q1265513)

A generalized functional identity is, roughly speaking, an identity satisfied by elements from a ring which involves maps on a ring and some fixed elements. The concept of generalized functional identities can be viewed as a generalization of the concept of generalized polynomial identities. The study of such identities was initiated recently by the reviewer [J. Algebra 172, No. 3, 690-720 (1995; Zbl 0827.16013)]. The paper under review gives an important generalization of the reviewer's result. The statement of the main result is rather long, so we just outline it. Let \(R\) be a prime ring with extended centroid \(C\) and central closure \(R_C\). Let \(r\geq 2\) be an integer and for each \(j=1,\dots,r\) let \(\{a^j_1,\dots,a^j_{n_j}\}\) and \(\{b^j_1,\dots,b^j_{m_j}\}\) be \(C\)-independent subsets of \(R_C\). Further, let \(F_{ji},G_{lk}\colon R^{r-1}\to R_C\) be maps additive in each argument. The paper treats the following generalized functional identity: \[ \sum^r_{j=1}\sum^{n_j}_{i=1} F_{ji}(x_1,\dots,x_{j-1},x_{j+1},\dots,x_r)x_ja^j_i+\sum^r_{l=1}\sum^{m_l}_{k=1} b^l_kx_lG_{lk}(x_1,\dots,x_{l-1},x_{l+1},\dots,x_r)=0 \] for all \(x_1,\dots,x_r\in R\). The conclusion is that either the maps \(F_{ji}\), \(G_{lk}\) have a very special form (the result gives their precise description) or the ring satisfies a generalized polynomial identity, which is by a well-known theorem of Martindale equivalent to say that \(R_C\) is a primitive ring with nonzero socle such that \(eR_Ce\) is a finite-dimensional division algebra over \(C\) for each primitive idempotent \(e\in R_C\). Though published only recently, this very interesting paper already inspired the research of some related topics. See, for example, recent papers on functional identities by \textit{K. I. Beidar} [Commun. Algebra 26, No. 6, 1819-1850 (1998; Zbl 0901.16011)] and \textit{K. I. Beidar} and \textit{W. S. Martindale} III [J. Algebra 203, No. 2, 491-532 (1998; Zbl 0904.16012)].