No label defined (Q4359207)

An RA loop is a loop whose loop algebra over a field of characteristic different from two is alternative, but not associative, and an RA2 loop is a loop whose loop algebra over a field of characteristic two is alternative but not associative. In fact, every \(RA\) loop is also an RA2 loop. If the characteristic of the field does not divide the order of the loop, the loop algebra is called semisimple, and if the characteristic divides the order of the loop, the loop algebra is called modular. This paper is concerned with certain modular loop algebras of RA2 loops, namely with the loop algebras of the RA2 loops of order 16 over the field with two elements. There are five such loops which are listed in the paper. Now the authors ask whether the loop algebras of two of these loops can be isomorphic. To answer this isomorphism problem they use the following proposition. Let \(A\) and \(B\) be algebras over a field \(F\), and let \(N(A)\) and \(N(B)\) denote the sets of all elements whose squares are zero in \(A\) or \(B\), respectively. If \(A\) and \(B\) are isomorphic, then \(N(A)\) and \(N(B)\) have the same cardinality. The paper includes a computer program written in BASIC which counts the number of null-square elements of each of the five algebras. It turns out that distinct algebras contain distinct numbers of null-square elements. Thus it is shown that any pair of loop algebras of the five RA2 loops of order 16 over the field with two elements are non-isomorphic.