Schanuel's conjecture and free exponential rings (Q2277030)

The paper under review deals with commutative rings R having an ``exponential'' E: \(R\to R^*\) with \(E(x+y)=E(x)\cdot E(y)\). The Schanuel condition means that R contains \({\mathbb{Q}}\), is a domain, and that for elements \(x_ 1,...,x_ n\) linearly independent over \({\mathbb{Q}}\) the transcendence-degree of the field generated by \(\{x_ 1,...,x_ n,E(x_ 1),...,E(x_ n)\}\) is \(at\quad least\quad n.\) (Schanuel's conjecture is this assertion for \(R={\mathbb{C}}\) and \(E=\exp).\) The author shows that if R satisfies this condition, then R contains as subring the ``free ring with exponential'', i.e. the initial object in this category.