Let $n geq 2$ be an integer. An emph{$n$-potent} is an element $e$ of a ring $R$ such that $e^n = e$. In this paper, we study $n$-potents in matrices over $R$ and use them to construct an abelian group $K_0^n(R)$. If $A$ is a complex algebra, there i
s a group isomorphism $K_0^n(A) cong bigl(K_0(A)bigr)^{n-1}$ for all $n geq 2$. However, for algebras over cyclotomic fields, this is not true in general. We consider $K_0^n$ as a covariant functor, and show that it is also functorial for a generalization of homomorphism called an emph{$n$-homomorphism}.
An n-homomorphism between algebras is a linear map $phi : A to B$ such that $phi(a_1 ... a_n) = phi(a_1)... phi(a_n)$ for all elements $a_1, >..., a_n in A.$ Every homomorphism is an n-homomorphism, for all n >= 2, but the converse is false, in gener
al. Hejazian et al. [7] ask: Is every *-preserving n-homomorphism between C*-algebras continuous? We answer their question in the affirmative, but the even and odd n arguments are surprisingly disjoint. We then use these results to prove stronger ones: If n >2 is even, then $phi$ is just an ordinary *-homomorphism. If n >= 3 is odd, then $phi$ is a difference of two orthogonal *-homomorphisms. Thus, there are no nontrivial *-linear n-homomorphisms between C*-algebras.
