Conditions satisfied by characteristic polynomials in fields and division algebras (Q5956876)

Let \(F\) be a field, \(E\) a finite extension of \(F\), and \(D\) a central simple \(F\)-algebra. The paper under review deals with the problem of whether \(E\) and \(D\) contain elements whose characteristic polynomials over \(F\) have zero coefficients at fixed points. The research in this direction is motivated by the fact that classical results on polynomials of degree \(5\) and \(6\) over fields are equivalent to special cases of the posed problem; this also applies to the well-known open question (put forward by Albert) of whether central division \(F\)-algebras of prime Schur indices are necessarily cyclic. The characteristic polynomial of an element \(\xi \) of \(D\) or \(E\) is presented in the form \[ f(\lambda) = \lambda ^n + \sigma _1 (\xi)\lambda ^{n-1} +\cdots+ \sigma _n (\xi), \] where \(n = [D:F]\) or \([E:F]\), respectively. The authors show that the system \(\sigma _j (X _1)=\dots= \sigma _j (X _m) = 0\), \(\sigma _i (X _1\dots X _m) = 0\) has no nontrivial solutions in the universal division algebra \(UD(n)\), provided that \(j\) and \(m\) are divisible by the square-free part of \(n\), and char\((k)\) does not divide \(n!\). In particular, this implies the nonexistence of an element of \(UD(n)\) of reduced trace zero and reduced norm one. Also, it has been proved that if \(k\) is a field, \(k _n\) is the rational function field in algebraically independent indeterminates \(Y _1,\dots, Y _n\) over \(k\), \(L _n\) is an extension of \(k _n\) obtained by adjoining a root of the polynomial \(X _n + Y _1X ^{n-1} +\cdots+ Y _n\), \((n _1, n _2)\) is a pair of positive integers not divisible by char\((k)\) and satisfying the condition \(n _1 + n _2 = n\), and \((m _1, m _2)\) is a pair of positive integers divisible by the square-free part of \(n\), and such that \((-n _2/n _1) ^{(m _2 - m _1)} \neq 1\) in \(k\), then the system of equations \(\text{tr}(x ^{m _1}) = \text{tr}(x ^{m _2}) = 0\) has no nontrivial solution in \(L _n ^{\ast }\). The proofs bear an algebro-geometric character and include several statements of independent interest.