Ax-Schanuel and strong minimality for the j-function

Abstract: Let

m a t h c a l K : = (K; +, c d o t, D, 0, 1)

be a differentially closed field of characteristic

0

with field of constants

C

. In the first part of the paper we explore the connection between Ax-Schanuel type theorems (predimension inequalities) for a differential equation

E (x, y)

and the geometry of the fibres

U_{s} : = y : E (s, y) w e d g e y o t i n C

where

s

is a non-constant element. We show that certain types of predimension inequalities imply strong minimality and geometric triviality of

U_{s}

. Moreover, the induced structure on the Cartesian powers of

U_{s}

is given by special subvarieties. In particular, since the

j

-function satisfies an Ax-Schanuel inequality of the required form (due to Pila and Tsimerman), applying our results to the

j

-function we recover a theorem of Freitag and Scanlon stating that the differential equation of

j

defines a strongly minimal set with trivial geometry. In the second part of the paper we study strongly minimal sets in the

j

-reducts of differentially closed fields. Let

E_{j} (x, y)

be the (two-variable) differential equation of the

j

-function. We prove a Zilber style classification result for strongly minimal sets in the reduct

m a t h s f K : = (K; +, c d o t, E_{j})

. More precisely, we show that in

m a t h s f K

all strongly minimal sets are geometrically trivial or non-orthogonal to

C

. Our proof is based on the Ax-Schanuel theorem and a matching Existential Closedness statement which asserts that systems of equations in terms of

E_{j}

have solutions in

m a t h s f K

unless having a solution contradicts Ax-Schanuel.

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