The cardinality of maximal nilpotent subsets of nil rings (Q790906)

Let R be a nil ring. Let \(\bullet\) be the adjoint group action on R; thus \(a\bullet b=a+b+ab.\) A subset S of R is said to have property \(P_{\alpha} (2\leq \alpha \leq \omega)\) (where \(\omega\) is the first infinite ordinal) if for all \(a,b\in S,\) \(a\neq b\), \(a\bullet b=0\) and for all \(a\in S\), there exists \(n<\alpha\) such that \(a^{n+1}=0.\) The first theorem states that if S is a subset of R maximal subject to having property \(P_{\alpha} (3\leq \alpha<\omega)\) then \(2^{| S|}\geq | R|\) (where \(| |\) denotes cardinality). He also shows that if R has finite characteristic, the same conclusion holds for \(\alpha =2\). This improves a result of the reviewer [Math. Scand. 39, 161-166 (1976; Zbl 0344.16023)] which states that an infinite nil ring has an infinite subring satisfying \(P_ 2\). The author also obtains results on the size of maximal commutative subrings of rings of large cardinality.