Polynomials That Force a Unital Ring to be Commutative

Abstract

We characterize polynomials f with integer coefficients such that a ring with unity R is necessarily commutative if f(R) = 0, in the sense that f(x) = 0 for all ${x \in R}$. Such a polynomial must be primitive, and for primitive polynomials the condition f(R) = 0 forces R to have nonzero characteristic. The task is then reduced to considering rings of prime power characteristic and the main step towards the full characterization is a characterization of polynomials f such that R is necessarily commutative if f(R) = 0 and R is a unital ring of characteristic some power of a fixed prime p.