FUNCTIONAL IDENTITIES REVISED: THE FRACTIONAL AND THE STRONG DEGREE (Q4532335)

The authors define the fractional and the strong degree of an element of a ring \(Q\), and show that if the fractional degrees of the elements of a subring \(R\) are \(\geq d\) for some \(d\) then \(R\) is \(d\)-free. This turns out to be the case when \(R\) is semiprime, and \(Q\) is its maximal (right) ring of quotients if no nontrivial ideal satisfies the standard identity of degre \(2d\). In this direction it is shown in the paper that the ring of \(d\times d\) matrices over any unital ring is \(d\)-free. Several applications of these results are given; such as a description of maps that preserve commutativity, Lie maps, etc.