Some classes of pre-Hilbert algebras with norm-one central idempotent (Q1955871)

It is well known that every alternative pre-Hilbert algebra with a unit \(1\) such that \(||1||=1\) is isomorphic to \(\mathbb{R}\), \(\mathbb{C}\), \(\mathbb{H}\) or \(\mathbb{O}\). By studying certain extensions of this result, the class of pre-Hilbert algebras satisfying the identity \((x((xy)x))x=(x^2y)x^2\) and with a norm-one idempotent \(e\) such that \(||ex||=||x||=||xe||\) for any \(x\), appears in a natural way. In the paper under review, the author gives a characterization of the class of pre-Hilbert algebras satisfying the above identity, \((x((xy)x))x=(x^2y)x^2\), and having a norm-one central idempotent \(e\) such that \(||ex||=||x||\). Since the existence of a norm-one central idempotent \(e\) is not guaranteed in every pre-Hilbert algebra \(A\neq 0\), it is also shown that, if \(A \) is power-associative and \(||a^2||=||a||^2\) for all \(a \in A\), then \(A\) has only a nonzero idempotent, which is the unit element in \(A\). Several conditions making a real algebra, which is also a pre-Hilbert space, isomorphic to \(\mathbb{R}\), \(\mathbb{C}\), \(\mathbb{H}\) or \(\mathbb{O}\), are also provided.