On some additive mappings in rings with involution

Summary LetR be a *-ring. We study an additive mappingD: R R satisfyingD(x ²) =D(x)x ^* +xD(x) for allx R.It is shown that, in caseR contains the unit element, the element 1/2, and an invertible skew-hermitian element which lies in the center ofR, then there exists ana R such thatD(x) = ax ^* – xa for allx R. IfR is a noncommutative prime real algebra, thenD is linear. In our main result we prove that a noncommutative prime ring of characteristic different from 2 is normal (i.e.xx ^* =x ^* x for allx R) if and only if there exists a nonzero additive mappingD: R R satisfyingD(x ²) =D(x)x ^* +xD(x) and D(x), x] = 0 for allx R. This result is in the spirit of the well-known theorem of E. Posner, which states that the existence of a nonzero derivationD on a prime ringR, such that D(x), x] lies in the center ofR for allx R, forcesR to be commutative.