Thoughts on Eggert's Conjecture

Abstract

Eggert's Conjecture says that if R is a finite-dimensional nilpotent commutative algebra over a perfect field F of characteristic p, and R^{(p)} is the image of the p-th power map on R, then dim_F R \geq p dim_F R^{(p)}. Whether this very elementary statement is true is not known. We examine heuristic evidence for this conjecture, versions of the conjecture that are not limited to positive characteristic and/or to commutative R, consequences the conjecture would have for semigroups, and examples that give equality in the conjectured inequality. We pose several related questions, and briefly survey the literature on the subject.