Characterization of the centrally finite Amitsur-Small division rings

Abstract

In 1978, Amitsur and Small asked whether, for every division ring $D$, maximal left ideals of $D[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ contract to maximal left ideals in smaller polynomial subrings. Chapman and the author showed that the answer is negative in general and called $D$ an Amitsur-Small ring when this contraction property always holds. Earlier work showed that Hamilton's real quaternion algebra is Amitsur-Small, that division algebras of degree three are not Amitsur-Small, and that degree-two examples are restricted to a specific quaternionic form; subsequent work excluded cyclic division algebras of odd prime degree. We give a complete resolution in the centrally finite case. If $D$ has finite dimension over its center $F$, then $D$ is an Amitsur-Small ring if and only if either $D=F$, or $F$ is real closed and $D$ is the Hamilton quaternion algebra $(-1,-1)_F$. In every other noncommutative centrally finite case, failure already occurs in two variables: there is a maximal left ideal $M\subseteq D[x,y]$ such that $M\cap D[x]$ is not maximal in $D[x]$.