Polynomial flows in the plane: A classification based on spectra of derivations (Q1896430)

A polynomial flow in \(K^n\) (where \(K\) is the real or complex field) is a map \(\varphi: U\to K^n\), where \(U\) is a neighborhood of \(\{0\}\times K^n\) in \(\mathbb{R}^n \times K^n\) with continuous first derivatives such that \(V(x)= (\partial \varphi/ p\partial t) (0,x)\) is also \({\mathcal C}^1\) and such that \(\varphi (0, x)=x\) for all \(x\in K^n\); \(\varphi (t, \varphi(s, x))= \varphi (t_s, x)\) for all \(x\in K^n\) and all sufficiently small \(s,t\in \mathbb{R}\); and for each \(t\in \mathbb{R}\) the map defined on \(U_t= \{K^n: (t,x)\in U\}\) by \(x\mapsto \varphi (t,x)\) is the restriction to \(U_t\) of a polynomial map \(K^n\to K^n\). The map \(V\) is called the polynomial vector field associated to \(\varphi\). The components of \(V\) defines a derivation \({\mathcal D}\) on \(K[X_1, \dots, X_n ]\) by \[ {\mathcal D} (P)= \sum_i V_i {{\partial P} \over {\partial t}}= {\partial \over {\partial t}} P(\varphi (t) )|_{t=0}. \] The author has previously shown that the derivations coming from polynomial flows have an intrinsic characterization, namely as those derivations \(D\) for which each variable \(X_i\) satisfies an equation \(\sum_j a_j d^j (X_i)=0\). The author classifies the polynomial flows on \(\mathbb{C}^2\) by classifying the corresponding derivations on \(D\) on \(\mathbb{C}[X,Y ]\). This is accomplished by first reducing to a certain numerical formula \(t+ \varepsilon+ l=n\) where \(t\) is the transcendence degree of the field \(C\) of \(D\) constants over \(\mathbb{C}\); \(l\) is the transcendece degree over \(C\) of the set of solutions in \(\mathbb{C} [X_1, \dots, X_n]\) of \(D\) linear differential equations (\(\mathbb{C}\) coefficients) and \(\varepsilon=1\) if there is a solution to \(DT= 1\) in the quotient field of \(\mathbb{C}[X_1, \dots, X_n]\) and 0 otherwise. For \(n=2\), the possibilities are limited and by case-by-case consideration the author shows which can occur and how to classify the corresponding derivation.