A class of triangular derivations having a slice (Q674466)

In Manuscr. Math. 60, No. 4, 407-415 (1988; Zbl 0644.14008) it is shown by \textit{D. M. Snow} that all free triangular \(G_a\)-actions on \(\mathbb{C}^3\) are equivariantly isomorphic to \(G_a \times \mathbb{C}^2\). In this paper we generalise this result to a special class of \(G_a\)-actions on \(\mathbb{C}^n\) \((n\geq 3)\), namely the free \(G_a\)-actions given by the locally nilpotent derivations of the form \(D=p(X_2, \dots, X_n)\partial_1 +q(X_3,\dots, X_n)\partial_2\) (the freeness of the \(G_a\)-action is equivalent to the fact that \(p\) and \(q\) have no common zero in \(\mathbb{C}^n\). We also say that \(D\) is free). In fact only assuming that \(\text{gcd}(p,q)=1\) we show that \(\mathbb{C} [X]^{G_a}\) is generated by \(n-1\) algebraically independent elements over \(\mathbb{C}\), which can be described explicitly (theorem I). Using this result we show that if \(p\) and \(q\) have no common zero in \(\mathbb{C}^n\), then \(D\) has a slice \(s\) in \(\mathbb{C}[X_1, \dots,X_n]\), i.e. \(D(s)=1\) (theorem II). So combining both theorems we obtain that \(D\) is conjugate to the derivation \({d\over dX_n}\) if \(D\) is free. In order words, the corresponding \(G_a\)-action on \(\mathbb{C}^n\) is equivariantly isomorphic to \(G_a\times\mathbb{C}^{n-1}\). The proof given below is purely algebraic (with \(\mathbb{C}\) replaced by a field \(k\) of characteristic zero) and is based on an algorithm, given by \textit{A. van den Essen} [J. Symb. Comput. 16, No. 6, 551-555 (1993; Zbl 0809.13002)] to compute the kernel of a locally nilpotent derivation.