On the degree of a linear form in conjugates of an algebraic number (Q1850266)

Let \(K\) be a field of characteristic \(0\). Let \(\alpha\) be algebraic of degree \(d\) over \(K\) with conjugates \(\alpha_1 = \alpha, \alpha_2, \dots, \alpha_d\). The paper considers the possible degrees of a linear form \(k_1 \alpha_1 + \dots + k_d \alpha_d\) with \(k_i \in K\) and a monomial \(\alpha_1^{q_1} \cdots \alpha_d^{q_d}\) with \(q_1, \dots, q_d \in \mathbb Z\) and contains a number of interesting results. For example, Theorem 4 states that if \(3 \leq d \leq n\) and \(q_1, \dots, q_n \in \mathbb Q\) satisfy \(|q_1|\geq |q_2|+ \dots + |q_n|\) then \(q_1 \alpha_1 + \dots + q_n \alpha_n \notin K\). The analogous Theorem \(4'\) treats the case of a product and includes the additional assumption that no ratio \(\alpha_i/\alpha_j\) be a root of unity. Theorem 1 states that if \(d\) is a prime and if \(x^{d-1} + \dots + x + 1\) is irreducible over \(K\) then for \(k_1, \dots, k_d \in K\) not all equal, the degree of \(k_1 \alpha_1 + \dots + k_d \alpha_d\) over \(K\) is divisible by \(d\). Theorem \(1'\) gives an analogous result for \(\alpha_1^{q_1} \cdots \alpha_d^{q_d}\).