On the dimension of faithful modules over finite dimensional basic algebras (Q1874296)

A notable theorem of Schur and Jacobson asserts that if \(K\) is a field, then any commutative subalgebra of the algebra of all \(n\times n\) matrices over \(K\) has \(K\)-dimension at most \(1+\lfloor n^2/4\rfloor\). Viewed from another perspective, this result shows that if \(\Lambda\) is a commutative \(K\)-algebra of finite \(K\)-dimension, and \(M\) is a faithful \(\Lambda\)-module, then \(\dim_K(M)\geq 2\sqrt{\dim_K(\Lambda)-1}\). This is the case \(q=1\) of the author's theorem, which we now describe. Suppose that the finite-dimensional \(K\)-algebra \(\Lambda\) satisfies the polynomial identity \[ [x_1,y_1][x_2,y_2]\cdots[x_q,y_q]=0, \] where \([x,y]=xy-yx\). This condition holds if and only if \(\Lambda/\text{rad }\Lambda\) is commutative, and then the index of nilpotency of the radical gives a bound for the smallest possible choice of~\(q\). The theorem states that if \(M\) is a faithful \(\Lambda\)-module, then \[ \dim_K(M)\geq\sqrt{{\dim_K(\Lambda)-q}\over{{1\over 2}-{1\over 4q}}}. \] An example shows the sharpness of the bound.