ABSTRACT
Kaplansky asked about the possible images of a polynomial f in several noncommuting variables. In this paper, we consider the case of f a Lie polynomial. We describe all the possible images of f in M2(K) and provide an example of f whose image is the set of non-nilpotent trace zero matrices, together with 0. We provide an arithmetic criterion for this case. We also show that the standard polynomial sk is not a Lie polynomial, for k>2.
KEYWORDS:
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Aner Shalev for interesting and fruitful discussions regarding this paper.