On higher-order discriminants

Abstract: For the family of polynomials in one variable

P : = x^{n} + a_{1} x^{n - 1} + c d o t s + a_{n}

,

n g e q 4

, we consider its higher-order discriminant sets

i l d e D_{m} = 0

, where

i l d e D_{m} : =

Res

(P, P^{(m)})

,

m = 2

,

l d o t s

,

n - 2

, and their projections in the spaces of the variables

a^{k} : = (a_{1}, l d o t s, a_{k - 1}, a_{k + 1}, l d o t s, a_{n})

. Set

P^{(m)} : = s u m_{j = 0}^{n - m} c_{j} a_{j} x^{n - m - j}

,

P_{m, k} : = c_{k} P - x^{m} P^{(m)}

. We show that Res

(i l d e D_{m}, p a r t i a l i l d e D_{m} / p a r t i a l a_{k}, a_{k}) = A_{m, k} B_{m, k} C_{m, k}^{2}

, where

A_{m, k} = a_{n}^{n - m - k}

,

B_{m, k} =

Res

(P_{m, k}, P_{m^{'}, k})

if

1 l e q k l e q n - m

and

A_{m, k} = a_{n - m}^{n - k}

,

B_{m, k} =

Res

(P^{(m)}, P^{(m + 1)})

if

n - m + 1 l e q k l e q n

. The equation

C_{m, k} = 0

defines the projection in the space of the variables

a^{k}

of the closure of the set of values of

(a_{1}, l d o t s, a_{n})

for which

P

and

P^{(m)}

have two distinct roots in common. The polynomials

B_{m, k}, C_{m, k} i n m a t h b b C [a^{k}]

are irreducible. The result is generalized to the case when

P^{(m)}

is replaced by a polynomial

P_{*} : = s u m_{j = 0}^{n - m} b_{j} a_{j} x^{n - m - j}

,

0 e q b_{i} e q b_{j} e q 0

for

i e q j

.

Cites Work

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