Algebras, dialgebras, and polynomial identities

This is a survey of some recent developments in the theory of associative and nonassociative dialgebras, with an emphasis on polynomial identities and multilinear operations. We discuss associative, Lie, Jordan, and alternative algebras, and the corresponding dialgebras; the KP algorithm for converting identities for algebras into identities for dialgebras; the BSO algorithm for converting operations in algebras into operations in dialgebras; Lie and Jordan triple systems, and the corresponding disystems; and a noncommutative version of Lie triple systems based on the trilinear operation abc-bca. The paper concludes with a conjecture relating the KP and BSO algorithms, and some suggestions for further research. Most of the original results are joint work with Raul Felipe, Luiz A. Peresi, and Juana Sanchez-Ortega.Comment: 32 page

An inner automorphism is only an inner automorphism, but an inner endomorphism can be something strange

The inner automorphisms of a group G can be characterized within the category of groups without reference to group elements: they are precisely those automorphisms of G that can be extended, in a functorial manner, to all groups H given with homomorphisms G --> H. Unlike the group of inner automorphisms of G itself, the group of such extended systems of automorphisms is always isomorphic to G. A similar characterization holds for inner automorphisms of an associative algebra R over a field K; here the group of functorial systems of automorphisms is isomorphic to the group of units of R modulo units of K. If one substitutes "endomorphism" for "automorphism" in these considerations, then in the group case, the only additional example is the trivial endomorphism; but in the K-algebra case, a construction unfamiliar to ring theorists, but known to functional analysts, also arises. Systems of endomorphisms with the same functoriality property are examined in some other categories; other uses of the phrase "inner endomorphism" in the literature, some overlapping the one introduced here, are noted; the concept of an inner {\em derivation} of an associative or Lie algebra is looked at from the same point of view, and the dual concept of a "co-inner" endomorphism is briefly examined. Several questions are posed.Comment: 20 pages. To appear, Publicacions Mathem\`{a}tiques. The 1-1-ness result in the appendix has been greatly strengthened, an "Overview" has been added at the beginning, and numerous small rewordings have been made throughou