A generalization of the Shestakov-Umirbaev inequality (Q930634)

One of the main steps of the remarkable solution of the Nagata conjecture about the wildness of the Nagata automorphism of \(k[x,y,z]\) (\(k\) a field of characteristic 0) in [\textit{I. P. Shestakov} and \textit{U. U. Umirbaev}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 17, No. 1, 181--196 (2004; Zbl 1044.17014); ibid. 17, No. 1, 197--227 (2004; Zbl 1056.14085)] was the estimate of the minimal degree of the polynomials in two-generated subalgebras of \(k[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\). In the paper under review the author generalizes the inequality of Shestakov and Umirbaev for subalgebras of \(k[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\) generated by any number of algebraically independent polynomials \(f_1,\ldots,f_r,g\). The inequality involves the degree of the exterior power \(df_1\wedge\cdots\wedge df_r\wedge dg\) of differentials. (The original Shestakov -- Umirbaev inequality was in terms of the commutator \([f,g]\) in the free Poisson algebra. In the present paper it is obtained as a consequence of the new inequality.) As applications of the main results, the author gives a necessary condition for the \(n\)-tuple \((f_1,\ldots,f_n)\) to be an automorphism of \(k[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\) (which implies the theorem of Yung for the tameness of the automorphisms of \(k[x_1,x_2]\)) as well as a generalization of a lemma of Shestakov and Umirbaev (also used in the proof of the Nagata conjecture). Recently, another generalization of the Shestakov--Umirbaev inequality was given in [\textit{L. Makar-Limanov} and \textit{J.-T. Yu}, J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 10, No. 2, 533--541 (2008; Zbl 1137.16029)]. It used the lemma for the radical in Malcev -- Neumann algebras of formal series. The degree estimate for two-generated subalgebras of \(k[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\) and of the free associative algebra \(k\langle x_1,\ldots,x_n\rangle\) were in terms of \(df\wedge dg\) for the polynomial case and the degree of the commutator \([f,g]\) in the noncommutative case.