On some properties of elementary derivations in dimension six (Q5929286)

This article is motivated by Roberts' well-known example of a derivation of the polynomial ring in 7 variables over a characteristic zero field \(k\) having a kernel which is not of finite type [\textit{P. Roberts}, J. Algebra 132, 461-473 (1990; Zbl 0716.13013)]. This example has the form \((x^3\partial_s + y^3\partial_t + z^3\partial_u + (xzy)^2\partial_v)\) on the ring \(R[s,t,u,v]\), where \(R=k[x,y,z]\). This is \textit{elementary} in the sense that \(Ds,Dt,Du,Dv\in R\). A natural question is whether an elementary derivation of \(R[s,t,u]\) can have a kernel not of finite type, where \(R\) is a UFD. The author shows that the answer is negative for a large class of rings \(R\), including the case \(R\) is a polynomial ring over \(k\). As a corollary, he completes the proof that any elementary derivation of \(k^{[6]}\) (the polynomial ring in 6 variables) is finitely generated; the other cases were considered by \textit{A. van den Essen} and \textit{T. Janssen} [``Kernels of elementary derivations'', Univ. Nijmegen Tech. Report 9548 (1995)].