Classification of trilinear operations and their minimal polynomial identities

We use the representation theory of the symmetric group to classify all multilinear operations over the field of rational numbers up to equivalence. In the case n = 3, we obtain explicit representatives of the equivalence classes of trilinear operations:
[a,b,c] = x1 abc + x2 acb + x3 bac + x4 bca + x5 cab + x6 cba.
From these results we obtain one-parameter families of deformations of the classical Lie, Jordan and anti-Jordan triple products and the corresponding varieties of triple systems. We use computational algebra to study the nonassociative polynomial identities satisfied by these operations in every totally associative ternary algebra. We obtain 18 new trilinear operations for which the corresponding varieties of triple systems are defined by identities of degrees 3 and 5. For 10 of these operations we classify their obvious identities in degree 3 and their minimal identities in degree 5.

M. R. Bremner < bremner@math.usask.ca >

L. A. Peresi < peresi@ime.usp.br >