Points whose coordinates are logarithms of algebraic numbers on algebraic varieties (Q1899821)

This paper introduces a new point of view on the conjecture of algebraic independence of logarithms of algebraic numbers. Given an algebraic subvariety \(X\) of \(\mathbb{C}^n\), defined over the field \(\overline {\mathbb{Q}}\) of algebraic numbers, the author considers the set \(X\cap {\mathcal L}^n\) of points of \(X\) whose coordinates belong to the \(\mathbb{Q}\)-vector space \({\mathcal L}= \exp^{-1} (\overline {\mathbb{Q}}^\times )\) of logarithms of algebraic numbers. The main conjecture on the subject is that \(X\cap {\mathcal L}^n\) is contained in the union of all vector subspaces of \(\mathbb{C}^n\) defined over \(\mathbb{Q}\) and contained in \(X\). The author studies the special case where \(X= G(k, m)\) is the affine cone over the Grassmannian which parametrizes the subspaces of dimension \(k\) of \(\mathbb{C}^m\) with \(m\geq k+2\). One of his results is that if the conjecture holds for \(G(2, 4)\), then it holds for all values of \(k\) and \(m\). The case \(k=2\) and \(m=4\) is equivalent to a conjecture on \(4\times 4\) skew-symmetric matrices with coefficients in \({\mathcal L}\); the four exponentials conjecture is a special case. The author also shows that if the main conjecture is true for the variety \(M_{d\ell} (r)\) of \(d\times \ell\)-matrices with rank \(r\) for all \(d\), \(\ell\) and \(r\) with \(\min \{d, \ell\}> r\geq 0\), then it is true for any affine homogeneous variety \(X\) which is defined over \(\mathbb{Q}\). Finally he constructs a new type of auxiliary function on an algebraic variety, which suggests a new approach for a solution of the above mentioned problems.