Variety of idempotents in nonassociative algebras

In this paper, we study the variety of all nonassociative (NA) algebras from the idempotent point of view. We are interested, in particular, in the spectral properties of idempotents when algebra is generic, i.e. idempotents are in general position. Our main result states that in this case, there exist at least $n-1$ nontrivial obstructions (syzygies) on the Peirce spectrum of a generic NA algebra of dimension $n$. We also discuss the exceptionality of the eigenvalue $\lambda=\frac12$ which appears in the spectrum of idempotents in many classical examples of NA algebras and characterize its extremal properties in metrised algebras.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure, submitte

On the representation ring of the polynomial algebra over a perfect field

We consider the tensor product of modules over the polynomial algebra corresponding to the usual tensor product of linear operators. We present a general description of the representation ring in case the ground field k is perfect. It is made explicit in the special cases when k is real closed respectively algebraically closed. Furthermore, we discuss the generalisation of this problem to representations of quivers. In particular the representation ring of quivers of extended Dynkin type A is provided.Comment: 17 page