A note on residual variables of an affine fibration (Q2448289)

The authors prove a result which is considerably stronger than a recent result of \textit{M. El Kahoui} [Arch. Math. 100, No. 1, 35--41 (2013; Zbl 1262.14073)]. Let \(R, A\) be noetherian integral domains. The morphism \(\text{Spec} A \to \text{Spec} R\) is an \(\mathbb{A}^n\) -fibration if all the scheme-theoretic fibers of this morphism are isomorphic to the affine \(n\)-space. \textit{S. M. Bhatwadekar} and \textit{A. K. Dutta} [Commun. Algebra 21, No. 2, 635--645 (1993; Zbl 0778.13016)] have introduced a notion of residue variable for such a morphism (in case \(n = 2\)). An element \(W\) in \(A\) is a residue variable if \(A \otimes_R k(P )\) is a polynomial algebra in \(n - 1\) variables over \(R[W ] \otimes_R k(P )\), for any prime ideal \(P\) in \(R\). This can be generalized to m algebraically independent elements \(W_1,W_2 , \dots, W_m\) of \(A\) to get an \(\mathbb{A}^{n-m}\) -fibration. The authors prove that \(A\) is a stably polynomial algebra over \(R[W_1 , W_2 , \dots, W_m ]\) if and only if the module of Kähler differentials \(\Omega_R (A)\) is stably free over \(A\). The proof uses ideas similar to those in the earlier papers of Bhatwadekar-Dutta on these topics. Kahoui's result is a special case when \(n = 3\).