A degree bound for strongly nilpotent polynomial automorphisms (Q2161148)

Let \(k\) be a field of characteristic zero, and consider polynomial ring in \(n\) variables with coefficients in \(k\). A polynomial map \(F\) is said to be a Keller map if its Jacobian determinant is a non-zero constant in \(k\). The celebrated Jacobian conjecture asserts that every Keller map is a polynomial automorphism. The Jacobian conjecture is easily verified to be true when \(n=1\), but remains open to now for all \(n\geq 2\). We say that the Jacobian matrix \(\mathrm{J} H\) of \(H\) is \textit{strongly nilpotent} with index \(p\), if \(\mathrm{J} H(X^{(1)})\cdots \mathrm{J} H(X^{(p)})=0\) for all \(X^{(1)},\dots,X^{(p)}\in k^n\) and \(p\) is the smallest integer with this property. It was shown by \textit{A. van den Essen} and \textit{E. Hubbers} [Linear Algebra Appl. 247, 121--132 (1996; Zbl 0868.13018)] that every \(F = X + H\) with \(\mathrm{J} H\) strongly nilpotent is a polynomial automorphism, which asserts a special case for the Jacobian conjecture. It is well-known that whenever \(F\) is a polynomial automorphism, it must be the case that the degree of its inverse \(F^{ -1}\) satisfies \(\deg(F^{-1})\leq \deg(F)^{n-1}\). The author improves in the strongly nilpotent case on this degree bound, i.e., let \(F = X + H\) be a polynomial map such that the Jacobian matrix \(\mathrm{J} H\) is strongly nilpotent with index \(p\), then \[ \deg(F^{-1})\leq \deg(F)^{p-1}. \]