On polynomial automorphisms commuting with a simple derivation (Q6924581)

The paper under review investigates the group \(\mathrm{Aut}(D)\) of \(k\)-automorphisms of the polynomial ring \(k[x_{1},\dots,x_{n}]\) that commute with a given \textit{simple derivation} \(D\in\mathrm{Der}(k[x_{1},\dots,x_{n}])\), where \(k\) is an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. (A derivation \(D\) is called simple if its only \(D\)-stable ideals are \(\{0\}\) and the whole ring. Such derivations form, in a sense, an opposite class to the well-studied locally nilpotent derivations: for a simple \(D\), \(\ker D=k\), while for a locally nilpotent derivation \(\Delta\) the kernel has transcendence degree \(n-1\).) The authors analyze the structure of the group \(\mathrm{Aut}(D) = \{\varphi\in\mathrm{Aut}(k[x_{1},\dots,x_{n}]): \varphi D = D\varphi\}\), which is naturally an ind-group inside the automorphism ind-group of affine \(n\)-space. The first main result (Theorem 3.2) shows that if \(D\) is simple, then the connected component \(\mathrm{Aut}(D)^{0}\) is a unipotent affine algebraic group of dimension at most~\(n\) acting freely on~\(\mathbb{A}^{n}\). This theorem and another authors' result (Theorem 3.4) imply that any algebraic element of \(\mathrm{Aut}(D)\) is unipotent and that \(\mathrm{Aut}(D)\) is algebraic if and only if it is connected. The authors conjecture that \(\mathrm{Aut}(D)\) is always connected, which would imply that the isotropy group of any simple derivation is algebraic.\N\NAnother important result of the paper is establishing a sharp bound on the dimension of the connected component: \(\dim \mathrm{Aut}(D)^{0} \le n-2\). The authors construct, by extending a known simple derivation \(\delta\in\mathrm{Der}(k[u,v])\) using Shamsuddin's criterion, explicit examples for which equality holds. Hence, for every \(n\ge2\) there exists a simple derivation of \(k[x_{1},\dots,x_{n}]\) whose automorphism group has connected component of dimension exactly \(n-2\). The last part of the work treats in depth the case when \(\mathrm{Aut}(D)\) contains a subgroup of translations. Here the authors describe the normalizer of a translation subgroup in \(\mathrm{Aut}(\mathbb{A}^{n})\) and prove that if \(D\) admits such a normal subgroup \(H\simeq \mathbb{G}_{a}^{s}\) acting globally trivially, then \(\mathrm{Aut}(D)\) itself is algebraic. As consequences, they obtain precise descriptions for small dimensions: for \(n=3\), either \(\mathrm{Aut}(D)\) is discrete or isomorphic to the additive group acting by translations; for \(n=4\), if \(\mathrm{Aut}(D)^{0}\) is nontrivial, it acts by translations and is algebraic.