Aperiodic sequences and growth functions of algebras (Q790912)

Let R be an associative algebra over a field k, generated by a finite set A. Denote by \(V^ n\) the k-space spanned by all products of at most n elements of A (or \(A\cup \{1\}\) in case R has a unit element). Then the function \(g(n)=g_{A,R}(n)=\dim_ kV^ n\) is called the growth function of R relative to A. The author's main result states that if R is a finitely generated k-algebra such that all products of elements in a generating set are algebraic, then i) if for some m, \(g(m)<frac{1}{2}m(m+3),\) then R is finite-dimensional, ii) there exists an infinite-dimensional k-algebra R such that every product of generators from A is nilpotent of exponent at most 5 and \(g(n)=frac{1}{2}n(n+3)\) for all n. Here R is constructed as semigroup algebra of a suitable non- nilpotent nilsemigroup, while i) appears as a special case of results of the author [in Algebra Logika 19, 659-668 (1980; Zbl 0485.16013)].