Related papers: The Waring Problem for Matrix Algebras, II

If a noncommutative polynomial $f$ is neither an identity nor a central polynomial of $\mathcal A=M_n(\C)$, then every trace zero matrix in $\mathcal A$ can be written as a sum of two matrices from $f(\mathcal A)-f(\mathcal A)$. Moreover,…

Suppose $F$ is an infinite field and let $f \in F\{X_1, \dots,X_m\}$ be a noncommutative polynomial. Partially answering a query of Makar-Limanov, we show that there are numbers $d$ and $m'$ such that, if $F$ is closed under taking $d$th…

Let $\mathcal A$ be an $\mathbb F$-algebra and $\omega \in \mathcal A\langle x_1, \ldots, x_m \rangle$ which defines a map $\mathcal A^m \rightarrow \mathcal A$ by evaluation, called a polynomial map with constant. We consider $\mathcal {A}…

Let $K$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic $0$ and let $M_n(K)$, $n \ge 3$, be the matrix ring over $K$. We will show that the image of any multilinear polynomial in four variables evaluated on $M_n(K)$ contains all matrices…

Let $r$ be a nonconstant noncommutative rational function in $m$ variables over an algebraically closed field $K$ of characteristic 0. We show that for $n$ large enough, there exists an $X\in M_n(K)^m$ such that $r(X)$ has $n$ distinct and…

Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a field. We show that given any $n$th degree monic polynomial $q(x)\in \mathbb{F}[x]$ and any matrix $A\in\mathbb{M}_n(\mathbb{F})$ whose trace coincides with the trace of $q(x)$ and consisting in its main diagonal of…

Let $\A$ be an algebra and let $f(x_1,...,x_d)$ be a multilinear polynomial in noncommuting indeterminates $x_i$. We consider the problem of describing linear maps $\phi:\A\to \A$ that preserve zeros of $f$. Under certain technical…

Let $F$ be an infinite field and let $f$ be a nonzero multilinear polynomial with coefficients in $F$. We prove that for every positive integer $d$ there exists a positive integer $s$ such that $f(M_{s}(F))$, the image of $f$ in $M_{s}(F)$,…

Let $F$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. We consider the question which subsets of $M_n(F)$ can be images of noncommutative polynomials. We prove that a noncommutative polynomial $f$ has only finitely many similarity…

An $m \times (n+1)$ multiplicity matrix is a matrix $M = ( \mu_{i,j} )$ with rows enumerated by $i \in \{ 1,\ 2, \ldots, m \}$ and columns enumerated by $j \in \{ 0,1,\ldots, n \}$ whose coordinates are nonnegative integers satisfying the…

We study non-linear surjective mappings on subsets of ${\cal M}_n(F)$, which preserve the zeros of some fixed polynomials in noncommuting variables. Keywords: Matrix algebra, Multilinear polynomials, Preservers.

Let $A$ be an algebra and let $f$ be a nonconstant noncommutative polynomial. In the first part of the paper, we consider the relationship between $[A,A]$, the linear span of commutators in $A$, and span$f(A)$, the linear span of the image…

Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a finite field of odd characteristic. When $|\mathbb{F}|\ge 5$, we prove that every matrix $A$ admits a decomposition into $D+M$ where $D$ is diagonalizable and $M^2=0$. For $\mathbb{F}=\mathbb{F}_3$, we show that such…

Kaplansky asked about the possible images of a polynomial $f$ in several noncommuting variables. In this paper we consider the case of $f$ a Lie polynomial. We describe all the possible images of $f$ in $M_2(K)$ and provide an example of…

An $n\times n$ zero pattern $S$, which is a matrix with entries $*$ and $0$, is called spectrally arbitrary with respect to a field $F$ if any monic polynomial $f$ of degree $n$ can be realized as the characteristic polynomial of a matrix…

Let $f=f(x_1,\dots,x_m)$ be a multilinear polynomial over a field $F$. An $F$-algebra $A$ is said to be $f$-zpd ($f$-zero product determined) if every $m$-linear functional $\varphi\colon A^{m}\rightarrow F$ which preserves zeros of $f$ is…

Let $p$ be a polynomial in several non-commuting variables with coefficients in a field $K$ of arbitrary characteristic. It has been conjectured that for any $n$, for $p$ multilinear, the image of $p$ evaluated on the set $M_n(K)$ of $n$ by…

Suppose E/F is a field extension. We ask whether or not there exists an element of E whose characteristic polynomial has one or more zero coefficients in specified positions. We show that the answer is frequently ``no''. We also prove…

We give a characterization for the Alexander Polynomials of closed orientable 3-manifolds M with first Betti number 1, as well as some partial results for the characterization problem for M having first Betti number > 1. We first prove an…

Fix a field F. A zero-nonzero pattern A is said to be potentially nilpotent over F if there exists a matrix with entries in F with zero-nonzero pattern A that allows nilpotence. In this paper we initiate an investigation into which…