Herbie: a cubic linear counterexample to the dependence problem (Q2479933)

The author gives a cubic linear counterexample to the (homogeneous) dependence problem in dimension 53 (hence the reference to ``Herbie'', a car having number 53 in a famous Disney movie). A polynomial map \(F\) is cubic linear if it is of the form \(F=(X_1+L_1^3,\ldots,X_n+L_n^3)\) where the \(L_i\) are linear -- often denoted as \(F=X+L^{*3}\). It is enough to prove the Jacobian conjecture for such maps, hence the interest. The dependence problem is the following: assume \(F=X+H\) where \(\text{Jac}(H)\) is nilpotent, is there a nonzero vector \(v\in \mathbb{C}^{n}\) such that \(v^t \text{Jac}(H)=0\)? One can refine this problem to assume that \(H\) is homogeneous. For these, examples were known for which there exists such a vector \(v\). Here, the author considers the case where \(H=L^{*d}\), and gives a counterexample for this case. He gives an overview of what is known on the various conjectures in which dimensions and which degree.