Quadratic maps between modules (Q734794)

For a commutative ring \(R\), the authors introduce a notion of an \(R\)-quadratic map between \(R\)-modules \(M\) and \(N\) as a map \(f:M\longrightarrow N\) such that its cross-effect map \(d_f:M\times M\longrightarrow N\) defined by \(d_f(x,y)=f(x+y)-f(x)-f(y)\) is \(R\)-bilinear and its second cross-actions map \(f_{[r]}:M\longrightarrow N\) defined by \(f_{[r]}(x)=f(rx)-r^2f(x)\) is \(R\)-linear. This is a generalization of an \(R\)-linear map. A certain \(R\)-module \(P^2_R(M)\) is also defined by way of defining identities so that the \(R\)-quadratic maps are represented by \(R\)-linear maps on that module. The authors then describe the stracture of this module in terms of the symmetric tensor square \(\mathrm{Sym}^2_R(M)\), the second degree component \(\Gamma_R^2(M)\) of the divided power algebra over \(M\) and the ideal \(I_2\) of \(R\) generated by the elements \(r^2-r, r\in R\). They show that the latter consists of quadratic derivations on \(R\) which come up in the theory of modules over square rings. This makes it possible then to extend the classical notion of nilpotent \(R\)-group of class 2 with coefficients in a 2-binomial ring \(R\) to any ring \(R\). A functional presentation of \(I_2\) is given and several exact sequences embedding the modules \(P^2_R(M)\) and \(\Gamma_R^2(M)\) are given. Some of the ideas presented here are inspired by I.B.S. Passi -- the authors give generalizations of some of his results as well as arrive at those results in a different way. The authors' intention is to provide a bridge between the classical realm of quadratic maps and the recent domain of quadratic algebra, with the final aim to apply methods of the latter to problems of the former.