Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
We study an associative algebra $A$ over an arbitrary field that is a sum of two subalgebras $B$ and $C$ (i.e., $A\,=\,B+C$ ). We show that if $B$ is a right or left Artinian $PI$ algebra and $C$ is a $PI$ algebra, then $A$ is a $PI$ algebra. Additionally, we generalize this result for semiprime algebras $A$ . Consider the class of all semisimple finite dimensional algebras $A\,=\,B+C$ for some subalgebras $B$ and $C$ that satisfy given polynomial identities $f\,=\,0$ and $g\,=\,0$ , respectively. We prove that all algebras in this class satisfy a common polynomial identity.