Nilpotent Inner Derivations of the Skew Elements of Prime Rings With Involution

Abstract

AbstractLet R be a prime ring with invoution *, of characteristic 0, with skew elements K and extended centroid C. Let a ∈ K be such that (ad a)n =0 on K. It is shown that one of the following possibilities holds: (a) R is an order in a 4-dimensional central simple algebra, (b) there is a skew element λ in C such that , (c) * is of the first kind, n ≡ 0 or n ≡ 3 (mod 4), and . Examples are given illustrating (c).