Periodic and Nil Polynomials in Rings

Abstract

Let R be an associative ring and f(x1,…, xd) a polynomial in noncommuting variables. We say that f is periodic or nil in R if for all r1,…, rd ∈ R we have that f(r1,…, rd) is periodic, respectively nilpotent (recall that a ∈ R is periodic if for some integer ).