The principal investigator will study actions of groups on noncommutative rings in various settings. In particular, he will investigate actions of tori and other algebraic groups on polynomial identity algebras. This research is in the general area of ring theory. A ring is an algebraic object having both an addition and a multiplication defined on it. Although the additive operation satisfies the commutative law, the multiplicative operation is not required to do so. An example of a ring for which multiplication is not commutative is the collection of nxn matrices over the integers. The study of noncommutative rings has become an important part of algebra because of its increasing significance to other branches of mathematics and physics.
