6533b7d2fe1ef96bd125df1f

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Codimension growth and minimal superalgebras

subject

description

A celebrated theorem of Kemer (1978) states that any algebra satisfying a polynomial identity over a field of characteristic zero is PI-equivalent to the Grassmann envelope G(A) of a finite dimensional superalgebra A. In this paper, by exploiting the basic properties of the exponent of a PI-algebra proved by Giambruno and Zaicev (1999), we define and classify the minimal superalgebras of a given exponent over a field of characteristic zero. In particular we prove that these algebras can be realized as block-triangular matrix algebras over the base field. The importance of such algebras is readily proved: A is a minimal superalgebra if and only if the ideal of identities of G(A) is a product of verbally prime T-ideals. Also, such superalgebras allow us to classify all minimal varieties of a given exponent i.e., varieties V such that exp(V) = d > 2 and exp(U) < d for all proper subvarieties U of V. This proves in the positive a conjecture of Drensky (1988). As a corollary we obtain that there is only a finite number of minimal varieties for any given exponent. A classification of minimal varieties of finite basic rank was proved by the authors (2003). As an application we give an effective way for computing the exponent of a T-ideal given by generators and we discuss the problem of what functions can appear as growth functions of varieties of algebras.