Varieties with at most cubic growth (Q1630104)

Let \(\mathcal V\) be a variety of (also nonassociative) algebras over a field of characteristic 0. One of the most natural ways to measure the complexity of \(\mathcal V\) is in terms of the asymptotic behavior of the codimension sequence \(c_n({\mathcal V})\), \(n=1,2,\ldots\). Due to the already classical results in [\textit{A. Regev}, Isr. J. Math. 11, 131--152 (1972; Zbl 0249.16007); \textit{A. Giambruno} and \textit{M. Zaicev}, Adv. Math. 140, No. 2, 145--155 (1998; Zbl 0920.16012); ibid. 142, No. 2, 221--243 (1999; Zbl 0920.16013)] the codimension sequence behaves nicely for varieties of associative algebras: \(c_n({\mathcal V})\) is exponentially bounded, \(\exp({\mathcal V})=\lim_{n\to\infty}\sqrt[n]{c_n({\mathcal V})}\) exists and is a nonnegative integer. When \(c_n({\mathcal V})\) is polynomially bounded the reviewer showed [\textit{V. Drensky}, Contemp. Math. 131, 285--300 (1992; Zbl 0766.16012)] that the growth of \(c_n({\mathcal V})\) is exactly polynomial. The situation is much worse in the nonassociative case. The codimension sequence may have an overexponential growth [\textit{V. M. Petrogradskiĭ}, Sb. Math. 188, No. 6, 913--931 (1997; Zbl 0890.17002); translation from Mat. Sb. 188, No. 6, 119--138 (1997)] and in the case of the polynomial growth the codimension sequence may have a fractional polynomial growth [\textit{M. V. Zaĭtsev} and \textit{S. P. Mishchenko}, Mosc. Univ. Math. Bull. 63, No. 1, 25--31 (2008; Zbl 1199.17001); translation from Vestn. Mosk. Univ., Ser. I 2008, No. 1, 25--31 (2008)]. In the paper under review the authors study varieties \(\mathcal V\) of nonassociative algebras satisfying the polynomial identity \(x(yz)=0\) such that \(c_n({\mathcal V})\leq Cn^a\), where \(C>0\) and \(a<3\). They show that if \(a<2\) then the growth is linear, i.e. \(c_n({\mathcal V})\leq C_1n\) and when \(2\leq a<3\) then the growth is quadratic, i.e. \(c_n({\mathcal V})\leq C_2n^2\) for some positive constants \(C_1, C_2\). This is the best possible result in this direction because \(c_n({\mathcal V})={\mathcal O}(n^{7/2})\) for the variety \(\mathcal V\) in the example of Zaĭtsev and Mishchenko cited above.