Sums of powers in function fields (Q5939621)

The paper is a continuation of the investigations on Hilbert's 17th problem for sums of \(2n\)th powers started in [\textit{E. Becker, R. Berr, F. Delon}, and \textit{D. Gondard}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 450, 139-157 (1994; Zbl 0807.14045)]. For an affine irreducible variety \(V\) over a field \(K\) (of characteristic 0) the authors defined in that paper subsets \(S(V|K)\) and \(T(V|K)\) of \(\mathbb N\). The subset \(S(V|K)\) is a multiplicative semigroup with 1 generated by a set of primes. The same is true for \(T(V|K)\) when non empty. The authors of the paper under review prove that if \(K\) is a function field over some field \(k\) with tr.d.\((K|k)\geq 1\), then \(S(V|K)= {\mathbb N}\) for all irreducible varieties \(V\) over \(K.\) The same is shown for \(T( {\mathbb A}^d|K)\) if tr.d.\((K|k)\geq 2.\) The known results inspire the authors to formulate the independence-conjecture: \(S(V|K)=S(W|K)\) for any varieties over \(K\). They make first steps towards an affirmative answer to this conjecture. Among other results, they show that \(S({\mathbb A}^d|K)=S({\mathbb A}^2|K)\) and \(T({\mathbb A}^d|K)=T({\mathbb A}^2|K)\) for \(d\geq 2.\) Although \(1\in S(V|K)\) it may happen that \(T(V|K)=\emptyset.\) The authors characterize the pairs \(V|K\) for which \(1\in T(V|K).\) In the paper cited above, it is proved that, for any set \({\mathbb P}_0\) of primes, there exists a field \(K\) such that \(S(V|K)=\langle{\mathbb P}_0\rangle\) for any \(V\) over \(K.\) In the final section of this paper, the authors show that for any set \({\mathbb P}_0\) of primes containing 2, there exists a field \(K\) such that \(T({\mathbb A}^d |K)=\langle{\mathbb P}_0\rangle\) for all \(d\in {\mathbb N}.\)