Multivariate Abel-Ruffini (Q303595)

This paper is concerned with the Abel-Ruffini theorem which states that a single variable polynomial equation of degree \(d\) is solvable by radicals if and only if the number of solutions is at most 4, which is in fact equivalent to \(d \leq 4\). A ``square system'' of equations is a set of simultaneous equations \(f_j (x_1, \ldots, x_n) = 0\) in which the number of equations is equal to the number of variables \(x_i\). For a square system of multivariable polynomial simultaneous equations, an analog of the degree is provided by the Minkowski mixed \(n\)-volume \(\text{Vol} (A)\) which is equal to the (\(n!\))-th multiple of the standard \(n\)-dimensional volume of the Newton polytope \(A\) of the system: The celebrated Bernstein-Kushnirenko theorem (1976) states that a square system of Laurent polynomial simultaneous equations with non-zero generic complex coefficients has \(\text{Vol} (A)\) non-zero complex solutions (counted with their multiplicities) [\textit{D.~N.~Bernstein}, Funct. Anal. Appl. 9, 183--185 (1976, Zbl 0328.32001); \textit{A.~G.~Kushnirenko}, Invent. Math. 32, 1--31 (1976, Zbl 0328.32007)]. In the paper under review, the authors generalize the Abel-Ruffini theorem to arbitrary dimension by classifying general square systems of Laurent polynomial simultaneous equations \(f_j (x_1, \ldots, x_n) = 0\) solvable by radicals, where \(j = 1, \ldots, n\). Each \(f_j\) is assumed to be ``supported'' by a specified finite set \(A_j \subset \mathbb{Z}^n\), that is, \[ f_j (x_1, \ldots, x_n) = \sum_{(a_1, \ldots, a_n) \in A_j} c_{j, (a_1, \ldots, a_n)} x_1^{a_1} \cdots x_n^{a_n}, \] where the coefficients \(c_{j, (a_1, \ldots, a_n)}\) are non-zero complex numbers. Without loss of generality, the tuple \((A_1, \ldots, A_n)\) is assumed to be ``irreducible'', that is, \((0, \ldots, 0) \in \bigcap_j A_j\) and \(\bigcup_j A_j \) generates \(\mathbb{Z}^n\). The authors considers two cases. The first is where \[ A_1 = \ldots = A_n = A \subset \mathbb{Z}^n \] and the second is where \(A_1, \ldots, A_n\) are arbitrary finite subsets of \(\mathbb{Z}^n\). In the former case, their Theorem 1 states that the system is solvable by radicals if and only if the number of solutions of the system is at most 4, which is equivalent to that the mixed volume of the convex hull of \(A\) is at most 4. In particular, they classify all lattice polytopes of mixed volume not exceeding 4. In the latter general case, it is much harder to classify solvable systems of simultaneous equations; the authors show that there exist solvable systems of simultaneous general equations with more than 4 solutions. In the latter case, the authors conjecture that the system is solvable by radicals if and only if the number of solutions of the system is at most 4 under the following additional restriction: the irreducible tuple \((A_1, \ldots, A_n)\) is ``reduced'', that is, the dimension of the convex hull of the union \(\bigcup_ {j \in I} A_j\) is greater than \(|I|\) for any \(I \subset \{1, \ldots, n\}\). They prove their restricted conjecture in some special cases (Theorems 2, 3, and 4). Cited from the authors' abstract: ``The proof is based on topological Galois theory, which ensures nonsolvability by any formula involving quadratures and single-valued functions, and the computation of the monodromy group of a general system of equations, which may be of independent interest.'' Reviewer's remark: The authors call the Bernstein-Kushnirenko theorem ``Kouchnirenko theorem'' but refer to Bernstein's above cited paper.