Let $R$ be an $n!$-torsion free semiprime ring with involution $*$ and with extended centroid $C$, where $n\,>\,1$ is a positive integer. We characterize $a\,\in \,K$, the Lie algebra of skew elements in $R$, satisfying ${{(\text{a}{{\text{d}}_{a}})}^{n}}\,=\,0$ on $K$. This generalizes both Martindale and Miers’ theorem and the theorem of Brox et al. In order to prove it we first prove that if $a,\,b\,\in \,R$ satisfy ${{(\text{a}{{\text{d}}_{a}})}^{n}}\,=\,\text{a}{{\text{d}}_{b}}$ on $R$, where either $n$ is even or $b\,=\,0$, then ${{(a\,-\,\lambda )}^{[(n+1)/2]}}\,=\,0$ for some $\lambda \,\in \,C$.

In this paper we prove the following result: let $m,n\geq 1$ be distinct integers, let $R$ be an $mn(m+n)|m-n|$-torsion free semiprime ring and let $D:R\rightarrow R$ be an $(m,n)$-Jordan derivation, that is an additive mapping satisfying the relation $(m+n)D(x^{2})=2mD(x)x+2nxD(x)$ for $x\in R$. Then $D$ is a derivation which maps $R$ into its centre.

Let $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}R$ be a semiprime ring with extended centroid $C$ and with maximal right ring of quotients $Q_{mr}(R)$. Let $d{:}\ R\to Q_{mr}(R)$ be an additive map and $b\in Q_{mr}(R)$. An additive map $\delta {:}\ R\to Q_{mr}(R)$ is called a (left) $b$-generalized derivation with associated map $d$ if $\delta (xy)=\delta (x)y+bxd(y)$ for all $x, y\in R$. This gives a unified viewpoint of derivations, generalized derivations and generalized $\sigma $-derivations with an X-inner automorphism $\sigma $. We give a complete characterization of $b$-generalized derivations of $R$ having nilpotent values of bounded index. This extends several known results in the literature.

Let $R$ be a semiprime ring with center $Z\left( R \right)$. For $x,\,y\,\in \,R$, we denote by $\left[ x,\,y \right]\,=\,xy\,-\,yx$ the commutator of $x$ and $y$. If $\sigma $ is a non-identity automorphism of $R$ such that

1

$$\left[ \left[ \cdot \cdot \cdot \,\left[ \left[ \sigma \left( {{x}^{n0}} \right),\,{{x}^{n1}} \right],\,{{x}^{n2}} \right],\cdot \cdot \cdot \right],\,{{x}^{nk}} \right]\,=\,0$$

for all $x\,\in \,R$, where ${{n}_{0}},\,{{n}_{1}},\,{{n}_{2}},\,...,\,{{n}_{k}}$ are fixed positive integers, then there exists a map $\mu \,:\,R\,\to \,Z\left( R \right)$ such that $\sigma \left( x \right)\,=\,x\,+\,\mu \left( x \right)$ for all $x\,\in \,R$. In particular, when $R$ is a prime ring, $R$ is commutative.

Let $R$ be a semiprime ring with $U_{\trm{s}}$ its maximal symmetric ring of quotients and let $\rho_1$ and $\rho_2$ be two right ideals of $R$. We show that $\ell_R(\rho_1)=\ell_R(\rho_2)$ if and only if $\rho_1$ and $\rho_2$ satisfy the same differential identities with coefficients in $U_{\trm{s}}$, where $\ell_R(\rho_i)$ denotes the left annihilator of $\rho_i$ in $R$. This gives a generalization of several previous results in this area.

AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 6R50. Secondary 16N60

In this paper we characterize maps f: R —> R where R is semiprime, f is additive, and [f(x),f(y)] = [x,y] for all x,y ∊ R. It is shown that f(x) = λx + ξ(x) where λ ∊ C, λ2 = 1, and ξ: R —> C is additive where C is the extended centroid of R.

In this paper we prove algebraic generalizations of some results of C. J. K. Batty and A. B. Thaheem, concerned with the identity α + α−1 = β + β−1 where α and β are automorphisms of a C*-algebra. The main result asserts that if automorphisms α, β of a semiprime ring R satisfy α + α-1 = β + β−1 then there exist invariant ideals U1, U2 and U3 of R such that Ui ∩ Uj = 0, i ≠ j, U1 ⊕ U2 ⊕ U3 is an essential ideal, α = β on U1, α = β−1 on U2, and α2 = β2 = α−2 on U3. Furthermore, if the annihilator of any ideal in R is a direct summand (in particular, if R is a von Neumann algebra), then U1 ⊕ U2 ⊕ U3 = R.