Algebraic independence of the Carlitz period and its hyperderivatives (Q2161330)

The Carlitz period \(\tilde\pi\) is given by \[ \tilde\pi=\lambda_{\theta}\theta\prod_{j\geq 1}(1-\theta^{1-q^j})^{-1} \in K_{\infty}(\lambda_{\theta}), \] where \(\lambda_{\theta}=\sqrt[q-1]{-\theta}\), \(K={\mathbb F}_q(\theta)\) and \(K_{\infty}={\mathbb F}_q\big(\big(\frac 1{\theta}\big)\big)\). The hyperdifferential operators with respect to \(\theta\) are defined in \(K_{\infty}\) by \[ \partial_{\theta}^{(n)}\big(\sum_{i=i_0}^{\infty} c_i\theta^{-i}\big)= \sum_{i=i_0}^{\infty} c_i \binom {-i}n\theta^{-i-n}, \] and are uniquely extended to \(K_{\infty}(\lambda_{\theta})\). The main result, Theorem 2.1, says that \(\tilde\pi\) is hypertranscendental over \(K\), that is, the set \(\{\partial_{\theta}^{(n)}(\tilde\pi)\mid n\geq 0\}\) is algebraically independent over \(K\). This result and its proof is the content of Section 2. The proof is similar to the one of Theorem 8.1 of the author paper's [Doc. Math. 23, 815--838 (2018; Zbl 1450.11085)], where it was proved the algebraic independence for the coordinates of a fundamental period \(\tilde \pi_n=(z_1,\ldots, z_n)^{\mathrm{tr}}\) of the \(n\)-th Carlitz tensor power \(C^{ \otimes n}\), \(n\geq 1\), if \(n\) is prime to the characteristic. These two proofs give a link between the hyperderivatives of \(\tilde\pi\) and the coordinates of \(\tilde\pi_n\): the coordinates \(z_1,\ldots,z_n\) belong to the \(K\)-vector space generated by \(\big\{\prod_{j=1}^n \partial_{ \theta}^{(m_j)}(\tilde\pi)\mid \text{ for all } j, 0\leq m_j\leq n-1\big\}\) and the proof provides an explicit description for these coordinates. All these results are obtained in Section 3. Finally, in Section 4, the author presents a proof for the explicit expressions for the coordinates of \(\tilde\pi_n\) and for the hyperderivatives of \(\tilde\pi\) that had been discovered previously by M. Papanikolas in an unpublished manuscript. The proof of the author is shorter than the one of Papanikolas.