Images of Multilinear Polynomials in the Algebra of Finitary Matrices Contain Trace Zero Matrices

Abstract

Let $F$ be an infinite field and let $f$ be a nonzero multilinear polynomial with coefficients in $F$. We prove that for every positive integer $d$ there exists a positive integer $s$ such that $f(M_{s}(F))$, the image of $f$ in $M_{s}(F)$, contains all trace zero $d \times d$ matrices. In particular, the image of $f$ in the algebra of all finitary matrices contains all trace zero finitary matrices.