Thoughts on Eggert's Conjecture
arXiv:1206.0326 · doi:10.1090/conm/609/12101
Abstract
Eggert's Conjecture says that if R is a finite-dimensional nilpotent commutative algebra over a perfect field F of characteristic p, and R^{(p)} is the image of the p-th power map on R, then dim_F R \geq p dim_F R^{(p)}. Whether this very elementary statement is true is not known. We examine heuristic evidence for this conjecture, versions of the conjecture that are not limited to positive characteristic and/or to commutative R, consequences the conjecture would have for semigroups, and examples that give equality in the conjectured inequality. We pose several related questions, and briefly survey the literature on the subject.
12 pages. Copy at http://math.berkeley.edu/~gbergman/papers may be updated more frequently than arXiv copy. A few misstatements in the first version have been corrected, and the wording improved in places