English

The Procesi-Schacher conjecture and Hilbert's 17th problem for algebras with involution

Rings and Algebras 2012-02-07 v2

Abstract

In 1976 Procesi and Schacher developed an Artin-Schreier type theory for central simple algebras with involution and conjectured that in such an algebra a totally positive element is always a sum of hermitian squares. In this paper elementary counterexamples to this conjecture are constructed and cases are studied where the conjecture does hold. Also, a Positivstellensatz is established for noncommutative polynomials, positive semidefinite on all tuples of matrices of a fixed size.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.5254,
  title  = {The Procesi-Schacher conjecture and Hilbert's 17th problem for algebras with involution},
  author = {Igor Klep and Thomas Unger},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.5254},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

Final pre-publication version

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:36:08.197Z