Two-sided vector spaces (Q860995)

In this interesting paper the authors investigate two-sided vector spaces over a perfect field \(K\), i.e., an abelian group \(V\) equipped with both left and right action by \(K\), subject to the associativity condition \((xv)y=x(vy)\) for all \(x,y\in K\), \(v\in V\). In the case when left and right actions of \(K\) on \(V\) agree, then \(V\) is nothing more than an ordinary \(K\)-vector space. Among the obtained results there is a complete characterization of isomorphism classes for simple two-sided \(K\)-vector spaces, which are left finite dimensional. This characterization allows authors to obtain the explicit description for the Quillen \(K\)-groups in the category of two-sided \(K\)-vector spaces which are left finite dimensional. Finally, a closely related problem of describing homomorphisms \(\varphi: K\to M_n(K)\) is investigated. A number of examples which illustrate the above results is presented.