Jacobson’s theorem on derivations of primitive rings with nonzero socle: a proof and applications

Abstract

We provide a proof of Jacobson’s theorem on derivations of primitive rings with nonzero socle. Both Jacobson’s theorem and its formulation (in terms of the so-called differential operators on left vector spaces over a division ring) underlie our paper. We apply Jacobson’s theorem to describe derivations of standard operator rings on real, complex, or quaternionic left normed spaces. Indeed, when the space is infinite-dimensional, every derivation of such a standard operator ring is of the form Arightarrow AB-BA for some continuous linear operator B on the space. Our quaternionic approach allows us to generalize Rickart’s theorem on representation of primitive complete normed associative complex algebras with nonzero socle to the case of primitive real or complex associative normed Q-algebras with nonzero socle. We prove that additive derivations of the Jordan algebra of a continuous nondegenerate symmetric bilinear form on any infinite-dimensional real or complex Banach space are in a one-to-one natural correspondence with those continuous linear operators on the space which are skew-adjoint relative to the form. Finally we prove that additive derivations of a real or complex (possibly non-associative) H^*-algebra with no nonzero finite-dimensional direct summand are linear and continuous.