Locally nilpotent derivations and their applications. III (Q1346812)

[For part I and II see Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 116, No. 3, 861-871 (1992; Zbl 0770.58032) and 121, No. 3, 667-678 (1994; Zbl 0810.58035).] In this paper the author concentrates on applications of locally nilpotent derivations on a commutative algebra. The applications are consequence of a known result of \textit{J. K. Deveney} and \textit{D. Finston} [Can. Math. Bull. 37, No. 1, 37-41 (1994; Zbl 0804.14023)]. The proofs of this and of other needed results are included in order to have a short self-contained introduction to locally nilpotent derivations. Thanks to this result the author is able to find a nilpotency-algorithm that decides if a derivation, the kernel of which is known to contain sufficiently many elements, is locally nilpotent. The main part of the paper is devoted to the extendability problem: Let \(F_ 1, \dots, F_{n - 1} \in \mathbb{C} [X]\). The \(n-1\) tuple \((F_ 1, \dots, F_{n - 1})\) is extendable if there exists a polynomial \(F_ n \in \mathbb{C} [X]\) such that \(F = (F_ 1, \dots, F_ n)\) is an invertible polynomial map. The extendability problem consists in asking for an algorithm that decides if a given \(n - 1\) tuple is extendable and that computes an \(F_ n\) (if it exists). The relationship of this problem with the slice problem is pointed out: a solution of the slice problem implies a solution of the extendability problem. A solution for the slice problem is announced in a forthcoming paper of \textit{Harm Derksen}. (A slice for a derivation \(D\) on a commutative \(k\)-algebra \(R\), is an element \(s \in R\) such that \(Ds = 1\).) Anyway, for the case \(n \leq 3\) an algorithm to decide extendability is given without computing a slice. Another problems like the degree of the inverse of a polynomial automorphism and the cancellation problem are also treated in the paper under review. The first was already solved, but thanks to the same result of Deveney and Finston, a shorter and elementary proof is given. The second problem also admits a reformulation in terms of locally nilpotent derivations.