English

The images of non-commutative polynomials evaluated on $2\times 2$ matrices

Algebraic Geometry 2017-12-05 v3

Abstract

Let pp be a multilinear polynomial in several non-commuting variables with coefficients in a quadratically closed field KK of any characteristic. It has been conjectured that for any nn, the image of pp evaluated on the set Mn(K)M_n(K) of nn by nn matrices is either zero, or the set of scalar matrices, or the set sln(K)sl_n(K) of matrices of trace 0, or all of Mn(K)M_n(K). We prove the conjecture for n=2n=2.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1005.0191,
  title  = {The images of non-commutative polynomials evaluated on $2\times 2$ matrices},
  author = {Alexey Kanel-Belov and Sergey Malev and Louis Rowen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.0191},
  year   = {2017}
}