A commutativity theorem for division rings and an extension of a result of Faith (Q2563745)

A polynomial over \(Z\) is called monic (co-monic) if the coefficient of the highest (lowest) term is 1. The order of a polynomial is the degree of its least term. With this terminology the authors prove the following results: 1. A subring \(A\) of a skew field is commutative if for each \(a\in A\) there are two co-monic polynomials \(f,g\in Z[x]\) of different orders and two elements \(y,z\neq 0\) in the centre of \(A\) such that \(f(a)y=g(a)z\). As a corollary they show 2. A reduced PI-ring \(R\) is commutative if for each \(a\in R\) there are two co-monic polynomials \(f,g\in Z[x]\) of different orders such that \(f(a)xg(a) =g(a)xf(a)\) for all \(x\in R\). They conjecture that the PI-hypothesis is not needed here. These results extend the work of \textit{I. Kaplansky} [Can. J. Math. 3, 290-292 (1951; Zbl 0043.03701)]. They also prove the following extension of a theorem of \textit{C. C. Faith} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 12, 274-283 (1961; Zbl 0113.02804)]. Let \(D\) be a skew field with a proper subring \(R\) such that for each \(a\in D\) there are monic polynomials \(f,g\in Z[x]\) with \(\text{deg }f>\text{deg }g\) and such that \(f(a)/g(a)\in R\). Then \(D\) is commutative. The main result used in the proof is a slight extension of a theorem in [\textit{M. Nagata, T. Nakayama} and \textit{T. Tuzuki}, Nagoya Math. J. 6, 59-61 (1953; Zbl 0052.03207)].