A solution to a problem of J. Schwaiger (Q1089532)

Let two abelian groups H and K be given and let X be a vector space over the rationals. Furthermore, for \(\phi\) : \(H\to X\) and \(h\in H\) let the iterated difference operators \(\Delta^ m_ h\phi\) be defined by \(\Delta^ 1_ h\phi (x):=\Delta_ h\phi (x):=\phi (x+h)-\phi (x)\) and \(\Delta^ m_ h\phi =\Delta_ h(\Delta_ h^{m-1}\phi)\). It is well known that the general solution \(\gamma\) of \(\Delta_ h^{m+1}\gamma (x)=0\), x,h\(\in H\), is a generalized polynomial of m-th order. Now, considering functions \(f: H\times K\to X\) one has the notion \(\underset {1}\Delta_ h^ m\), \(\underset {2}\Delta_ k^ n\) of partial difference operators \((\underset {1}\Delta^ m_ h=\Delta^ m_{(h,0)},\underset {2}\Delta^ n_ k=\Delta^ n_{(0,k)}).\) The main result of this paper is the proof of the following result which has been conjectured by the reviewer. Theorem. A function \(f: H\times K\to X\) satisfies \(\underset {1}\Delta_ h^{m+1}\underset {2}\Delta_ k{}^{n+1}f(x,y)=0,\) x,h\(\in H\), y,k\(\in K\) if and only if f is of the form \(f=p+q\), where p,q: \(H\times K\to X\) are such that p(\(\cdot,y)\) resp. q(x,\(\cdot)\) are generalized polynomials defined on H resp. K of respective orders m and n.