Identities for the associator in alternative algebras

The associator is an alternating trilinear product for any alternative algebra. We study this trilinear product in three related algebras: the associator in a free alternative algebra, the associator in the Cayley algebra, and the ternary cross product on four-dimensional space. This last example is isomorphic to the ternary subalgebra of the Cayley algebra which is spanned by the non-quaternion basis elements. We determine the identities of degree less than or equal to 7 satisfied by these three ternary algebras. We discover two new identities in degree 7 satisfied by the associator in every alternative algebra and five new identities in degree 7 satisfied by the associator in the Cayley algebra. For the ternary cross product we recover the ternary derivation identity in degree 5 introduced by Filippov. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.