Jordan [! \large !]$\sigma $-derivations of prime rings

Abstract

Let $R$ be a noncommutative prime ring with extended centroid~$C$ and with $Q_{mr}(R)$ its maximal right ring of quotients. From the viewpoint of functional identities, we give a complete characterization of Jordan $\sigma $-derivations of $R$ with $\sigma $ an epimorphism. Precisely, given such a Jordan $\sigma $-derivation $\de \colon R\to Q_{mr}(R)$, it is proved that either $\delta $ is a $\sigma $-derivation or a derivation $d\colon R\to Q_{mr}(R)$ and a unit $u\in Q_{mr}(R)$ exist such that $\delta (x)=ud(x)+\mu (x)u$ for all $x\in R$, where $\mu \colon R\to C$ is an additive map satisfying $\mu (x^2)=0$ for all $x\in R$. In addition, if $\sigma $ is an X-outer automorphism, then $\delta $ is always a $\sigma $-derivation.