The solution to the Waring problem for monomials and the sum of coprime monomials (Q1950618)

Let \(k\) be an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero and \(S=k[x_1, \dots, x_n]\) be the standard graded polynomial ring in \(n\) variables. Given a degree \(d\) form \(F\) the \textit{Waring problem for polynomials} asks for the least value of \(s\) for which there exist linear forms \(L_1, \dots, L_s\) such that \[ F=\sum_{i=1}^L{}_i{}^d. \] This values of \(s\) is called the Waring rank of \(F\) and denoted by \(\mathrm{rk}(F)\). It is important to recall that, in the general situation, there is no effective algorithmic way to compute the rank of a given form. In this paper the authors address and completely solve the Waring problem for monomials { Proposition} Let \(n\geq 1\) and \(1 \leq a_1 \leq \cdots \leq a_n\). If \[ M=x_1^{a_1}\cdots x_n^{a_n}, \] then \(\mathrm{rk}(M)=\frac{1}{a_1+1}\prod_{i=1}^n (a_i+1)\). Their approach is based on the Apolarity Lemma which permits to relate the computation of \(\mathrm{rk}(F)\) to the study of ideals of reduced points contained in the ideal \(F^\perp=\{\partial \in T\, : \, \partial F=0 \}\), where \(T\) is a ring acting via differentiation on the ring \(S\). Moreover, using these ideas the authors obtain a complete solution to the Waring problem for polynomials which are sum of coprime monomials. Theorem. Consider the degree \(d\) form \[ F=M_1 + \cdots + M_r=x_{1,1}^{a_{1,1}}\cdots x_{1,n_1}^{a_{1,n_1}}+\cdots + x_{r,1}^{a_{r,1}}\cdots x_{r,n_r}^{a_{r,n_r}}. \] where \[ a_{i,1}+\cdots + a_{i,n_i}=d, \quad 1 \leq a_{i,1} \leq \cdots \leq a_{i,{n_i}} \, (1\leq i \leq r). \] If \(d=1\) then \(\mathrm{rk}(F)=1\). If \(d\geq 2\) then \[ \mathrm{rk}(F)=\sum_{i=1}^r \mathrm{rk}(M_i). \] Finally, the authors show two interesting applications. They first show that, in three variables and for degree high enough, certain monomials provide examples of forms having rank higher than the generic form. Moreover they find a minimal sum of powers decomposition for forms which are the sum of pairwise coprime monomials.