On n-generalized commutators and Lie ideals of rings

Abstract

Let R be an associative ring.In the paper we study n-generalized commutators of rings and prove that if R is a noncommutative prime ring and n > 2, then every nonzero n-generalized Lie ideal of R contains a nonzero ideal. Therefore, if R is a noncommutative simple ring, then R = [R, . . . ,R]n. This extends a classical result due to Herstein (Portugal. Math., 1954). Some generalizations and related questions on n-generalized commutators and their relationship with noncommutative polynomials are also discussed.