A Commutativity Theorem for Near-Rings

Abstract

A ring or near-ring R is called periodic if for each xϵR, there exist distinct positive integers n, m for which xn = xm. A well-known theorem of Herstein states that a periodic ring is commutative if its nilpotent elements are central [5], and Ligh [6] has asked whether a similar result holds for distributively-generated (d-g) near-rings. It is the purpose of this note to provide an affirmative answer.