Iterative algebras. (Q5962977)

Monomial algebras have the advantage that many ring theoretic properties can be understood purely combinatorially in terms of combinatorics of words. They provide a rich class of examples in ring theory. In the paper under review the authors construct a new class of monomial algebras which they call iterative. They start with a finite alphabet \(\Sigma\) and an endomorphism \(\phi\) of the free monoid \(\Sigma^*\) on \(\Sigma\) with the property that there exists a variable \(b\in\Sigma\) and a nonempty word \(x\in\Sigma^*\) such that \(\phi(b)=bx\). Then the authors construct the right-infinite word \(w=bx\phi(x)\phi^2(x)\cdots\). The iterative algebra \(A_w\) associated with \(w\) is the factor algebra \(k\langle\Sigma\rangle/I\) of the free associative algebra on \(\Sigma\) over a field \(k\), where \(I\) is the ideal generated by all words which do not occur as subwords of \(w\). The authors show that iterative algebras retain many of the nice combinatorial properties of finitely presented algebras, but at the same time can sometimes possess bizarre properties due to the iterative nature of their definition. They show that ring theoretic properties such as being prime, semiprime, satisfying a polynomial identity and being Noetherian are all decidable in terms of the combinatorics of the endomorphism \(\phi\). The constructed algebras have Gelfand-Kirillov dimension in the set \(\{1,2,3\}\). As a result, the authors provided answers to several questions in [\textit{B. Greenfeld} et al., Algebr. Represent. Theory 18, No. 3, 777-800 (2015; Zbl 1335.16033)]. They construct a finitely generated \(k\)-algebra \(R\) that is a prime, graded nilpotent algebra, of Gelfand-Kirillov dimension two, has trivial Jacobson radical and is finitely generated as a Lie algebra. The construction provides another example of a graded-nil algebra which is not Jacobson radical. Such an algebra was first constructed by \textit{A. Smoktunowicz}, [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 40, No. 6, 917-928 (2008; Zbl 1161.16012)]. It gives also a primitive graded-nil algebra of quadratic growth, which was done in [\textit{L. Bartholdi}, Isr. J. Math. 193, 507-508 (2013; Zbl 1270.16023)].