Reciprocal polynomials and modular invariant theory (Q2468665)

Let \(p\) be a prime number, \(\mathbb F_p\) be the finite field with \(p\) elements. Let \(V\) be a finite-dimensional vector space over \(\mathbb F_p\), and denote by \(S(V)\) the symmetric algebra of \(V\), i.e. if \(v_1, v_2, \dots, v_n\) is a basis of \(V\) over \(\mathbb F_p\), then \(S(V)\) is simply the polynomial ring \(\mathbb F_p [v_1, v_2, \dots, v_n]\) where \(v_1, v_2, \dots, v_n\) are the variables. In the quotient field of \(S(V)\), the author of this article under review defines a \(\mathbb F_p\)-subalgebra \(A(V)\) by \(A(V)=\mathbb F_p[v^{-1}:v \in V \setminus \{0 \}]\). Elements in \(A(V)\) are called reciprocal polynomials. The purpose of this paper is to study various properties of \(A(V)\). Let \(V^{\ast}\) be the dual space of \(V\). The symmetric algebra \(S(V^{\ast})\) may be embedded in \(A(V)\) through the \(\mathbb F_p\)-algebra homomorphism \(\theta \mapsto \sum_{v \in V \setminus \{ 0 \}} \theta(v)/v\) for any \(\theta \in V^{\ast}\). A cover \(B(V)\) of \(A(V)\) is defined as follows : \(B(V)\) is the quotient ring of the polynomial ring \(\mathbb F_p[x_v: v \in V \setminus \{0 \}]\) by the ideal generated by \(x_ux_v=x_{u+v}(x_v-x_{-u})\) whenever \(u,v,u+v \in V \setminus \{0 \}\). There is an \(\mathbb F_p\)-algebra surjection from \(B(V)\) onto \(A(V)\) by sending \(x_v\) to \(v^{-1}\) for any \(v \in V \setminus \{ 0 \}\). Since the group \(\text{GL}(V)\) acts naturally on \(V\), it acts also on \(A(V), B(V)\) and \(S(V^{\ast})\). It is shown that \(A(V)\) is a Cohen-Macaulay normal domain and the ring of invariants \(A(V)^{\text{GL}(V)}\) is a polynomial ring; the generators of \(A(V)^{\text{GL}(V)}\) may be written with the aid of Dickson invariants. It is also shown that the kernel of the surjective morphism from \(B(V)\) to \(A(V)\) is the unique minimal prime ideal of \(B(V)\). \(A(V)\) is a purely inseparable integral extension of \(S(V^{\ast})\); in fact, \(A(V)^{p^m} \subset S(V^{\ast})\) if the vector space dimension of \(V\) is \(m+1\). Moreover, \(A(V)\) is a free module of \(S(V^{\ast})\) with rank equal to the order of the \(p\)-Sylow subgroup of \(\text{GL}(V)\). An analogue of Steenrod power operations on \(A(V^{\ast})\) (hence of \(A(V)\)) are defined.