On the primality property of central polynomials of prime varieties of associative algebras (Q325633)

A polynomial \(f(x_1,\ldots, x_n)\) in the free associative algebra over a field is called a central polynomial for the associative algebra \(A\) if \(f(a_1,\ldots, a_n)\) lies in the centre of \(A\) for every \(a_i\in A\). Clearly all constants and all polynomial identities for \(A\) are central polynomials. One may consider the so called \textsl{essential} central polynomials: these are multilinear polynomials that are not identities for \(A\) but assume only central values in \(A\). An ideal in the free associative algebra is a verbal ideal if it is stable under endomorphisms. It is well known that the ideal \(\Gamma\) is verbally prime if and only if it coincides with the ideal of identities of some algebra \(A\). A verbal ideal is verbally prime if it is prime inside the class of all verbal ideals. The main result of the paper under review is the following theorem. Let \(A\) be an algebra over an arbitrary field and let \(\Gamma\) be its verbal ideal. Assume \(\Gamma\) is verbally prime and let \(f(x_1,\ldots,x_n)\) and \(g(y_1,\ldots,y_m)\) be multilinear polynomials in disjoint sets of variables. If the product \(f(x_1,\ldots,x_n)g(y_1,\ldots,y_m)\) is a central polynomial for \(A\) then both \(f\) and \(g\) are central polynomials for \(A\). Recall that verbally prime ideals are of significant importance in PI theory. Their nature is well understood in characteristic 0 only. The primeness property of the central polynomials for the matrix algebras \(M_n(K)\) over a field was established in [\textit{A. Regev}, Pac. J. Math. 83, 269--271 (1979; Zbl 0425.16017)]. The corresponding result for the matrices over the Grassmann algebra \(M_n(E)\) and for the algebras \(M_{k,k}(E)\) was obtained by \textit{D. D. P. da Silva e Silva} [Linear Multilinear Algebra 63, No. 11, 2151--2158 (2015; Zbl 1331.16020)]. We also want to recall that in characteristic 0, the verbal ideals of \(M_n(K)\), \(M_n(E)\) and \(M_{a,b}(E)\) exhaust all nontrivial verbal ideals.