Commutativity results for rings

Abstract

Let R be an associative ring. We prove that if for each finite subset F of R there exists a positive integer n = n(F) such that (xy)n − yn xn is in the centre of R for every x, y in F, then the commutator ideal of R is nil. We also prove that if n is a fixed positive integer and R is an n(n + 1)-torsion-free ring with identity such that (xy)n − ynxn = (yx)n xnyn is in the centre of R for all x, y in R, then R is commutative.