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Michael Wibmer

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Wibmer.

35 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Algebraic groups as difference Galois groups of linear differential equations

We study the inverse problem in the difference Galois theory of linear differential equations over the difference-differential field $\mathbb{C}(x)$ with derivation $\frac{d}{dx}$ and endomorphism $f(x)\mapsto f(x+1)$. Our main result is that every linear algebraic group, considered as a difference algebraic group, occurs as the difference Galois group of some linear differential equation over $\mathbb{C}(x)$.

math.AG↗

Solving difference equations in sequences: Universality and Undecidability

$ $We study solutions of difference equations in the rings of sequences and, more generally, solutions of equations with a monoid action in the ring of sequences indexed by the monoid. This framework includes, for example, difference equations on grids (e.g., standard difference schemes) and difference equations in functions on words. On the universality side, we prove a version of strong Nullstellensatz for such difference equations under the assuption that the cardinality of the ground field is greater than the cardinality of the monoid and construct an example showing that this assumption cannot be omitted. On the undecidability side, we show that the following problems are undecidable: $\bullet$ testing radical difference ideal membership or, equivalently, determining whether a given difference polynomial vanishes on the solution set of a given system of difference polynomials; $\bullet$ determining consistency of a system of difference equations in the ring of real-valued sequences; $\bullet$ determining consistency of a system of equations with action of $\mathbb{Z}^2$, $\mathbb{N}^2$, or the free monoid with two generators in the corresponding ring of sequences over any field of characteristic zero.

math.AG↗

Free Proalgebraic Groups

Replacing finite groups by linear algebraic groups, we study an algebraic-geometric counterpart of the theory of free profinite groups. In particular, we introduce free proalgebraic groups and characterize them in terms of embedding problems. The main motivation for this endeavor is a differential analog of a conjecture of Shafarevic.

math.AG↗

Finiteness properties of affine difference algebraic groups

We establish several finiteness properties of groups defined by algebraic difference equations. One of our main results is that a subgroup of the general linear group defined by possibly infinitely many algebraic difference equations in the matrix entries can indeed be defined by finitely many such equations. As an application, we show that the difference ideal of all difference algebraic relations among the solutions of a linear differential equation is finitely generated.

math.AG↗

Model Theory of Proalgebraic Groups

We lay the foundations for a model theoretic study of proalgebraic groups. Our axiomatization is based on the tannakian philosophy. Through a tensor analog of skeletal categories we are able to consider neutral tannakian categories with a fibre functor as many-sorted first order structures. The class of diagonalizable proalgebraic groups is analyzed in detail. We show that the theory of a diagonalizable proalgebraic group $G$ is determined by the theory of the base field and the theory of the character group of $G$. Some initial steps towards a comprehensive study of types are also made.

math.LO↗

Strongly étale difference algebras and Babbitt's decomposition

We introduce a class of strongly étale difference algebras, whose role in the study of difference equations is analogous to the role of étale algebras in the study of algebraic equations. We deduce an improved version of Babbitt's decomposition theorem and we present applications to difference algebraic groups and the compatibility problem.

math.AG↗

Differential Embedding Problems over Complex Function Fields

We introduce the notion of differential torsors, which allows the adaptation of constructions from algebraic geometry to differential Galois theory. Using these differential torsors, we set up a general framework for applying patching techniques in differential Galois theory over fields of characteristic zero. We show that patching holds over function fields over the complex numbers. As the main application, we prove the solvability of all differential embedding problems over complex function fields, thereby providing new insight on the structure of the absolute differential Galois group, i.e., the fundamental group of the underlying Tannakian category.

math.RA↗

Torsors for Difference Algebraic Groups

We introduce a cohomology set for groups defined by algebraic difference equations and show that it classifies torsors under the group action. This allows us to compute all torsors for large classes of groups. We also develop some tools for difference algebraic geometry and present an application to the Galois theory of differential equations depending on a discrete parameter.

math.AG↗

Tannakian categories with semigroup actions

Ostrowski's theorem implies that $\log(x),\log(x+1),\ldots$ are algebraically independent over $\mathbb{C}(x)$. More generally, for a linear differential or difference equation, it is an important problem to find all algebraic dependencies among a non-zero solution $y$ and particular transformations of $y$, such as derivatives of $y$ with respect to parameters, shifts of the arguments, rescaling, etc. In the present paper, we develop a theory of Tannakian categories with semigroup actions, which will be used to attack such questions in full generality. Deligne studied actions of braid groups on categories and obtained a finite collection of axioms that characterizes such actions to apply it to various geometric constructions. In this paper, we find a finite set of axioms that characterizes actions of semigroups that are finite free products of semigroups of the form $\mathbb{N}^n\times \mathbb{Z}/n_1\mathbb{Z}\times\ldots\times\mathbb{Z}/n_r\mathbb{Z}$ on Tannakian categories. This is the class of semigroups that appear in many applications.

math.AC↗

Difference Galois theory of linear differential equations

We develop a Galois theory for linear differential equations equipped with the action of an endomorphism. This theory is aimed at studying the difference algebraic relations among the solutions of a linear differential equation. The Galois groups here are linear difference algebraic groups, i.e., matrix groups defined by algebraic difference equations.

math.AC↗

Difference algebraic relations among solutions of linear differential equations

We extend and apply the Galois theory of linear differential equations equipped with the action of an endomorphism. The Galois groups in this Galois theory are difference algebraic groups and we use structure theorems for these groups to characterize the possible difference algebraic relations among solutions of linear differential equations. This yields tools to show that certain special functions are difference transcendent. One of our main results is a characterization of discrete integrability of linear differential equations with almost simple usual Galois group, based on a structure theorem for the Zariski dense difference algebraic subgroups of almost simple algebraic groups, which is a schematic version, in characteristic zero, of a result due to Z. Chatzidakis, E. Hrushovski and Y. Peterzil.

math.AC↗

σ-Galois theory of linear difference equations

We develop a Galois theory for systems of linear difference equations with an action of an endomorphism σ. This provides a technique to test whether solutions of such systems satisfy σ-polynomial equations and, if yes, then characterize those. We also show how to apply our work to study isomonodromic difference equations and difference algebraic properties of meromorphic functions.

math.AC↗

Skolem-Mahler-Lech type theorems and Picard-Vessiot theory

We show that three problems involving linear difference equations with rational function coefficients are essentially equivalent. The first problem is the generalization of the classical Skolem-Mahler-Lech theorem to rational function coefficients. The second problem is the question whether or not for a given linear difference equation there exists a Picard-Vessiot extension inside the ring of sequences. The third problem is a certain special case of the dynamical Mordell-Lang conjecture. This allows us to deduce solutions to the first two problems in a particular but fairly general special case.

math.AC↗

A Chevalley theorem for difference equations

By a theorem of Chevalley the image of a morphism of varieties is a constructible set. The algebraic version of this fact is usually stated as a result on "extension of specializations" or "lifting of prime ideals". We present a difference analog of this theorem. The approach is based on the philosophy that occasionally one needs to pass to higher powers of $σ$, where $σ$ is the endomorphism defining the difference structure. In other words, we consider difference pseudo fields (which are finite direct products of fields) rather than difference fields. We also prove a result on compatibility of pseudo fields and present some applications of the main theorem, e.g. constrained extension and uniqueness of differential Picard-Vessiot rings with a difference parameter.

math.AC↗

Groebner bases for families of affine or projective schemes

Let $I$ be an ideal of the polynomial ring $A[x]=A[x_1,...,x_n]$ over the commutative, noetherian ring $A$. Geometrically $I$ defines a family of affine schemes over $\Spec(A)$: For $\p\in\Spec(A)$, the fibre over $\p$ is the closed subscheme of affine space over the residue field $k(\p)$, which is determined by the extension of $I$ under the canonical map $σ_\p:A[x]\to k(\p)[x]$. If $I$ is homogeneous there is an analogous projective setting, but again the ideal defining the fibre is $\sigI$. For a chosen term order this ideal has a unique reduced Gröbner basis which is known to contain considerable geometric information about the fibre. We study the behavior of this basis for varying $\p$ and prove the existence of a canonical decomposition of the base space $\Spec(A)$ into finitely many locally closed subsets over which the reduced Gröbner bases of the fibres can be parametrized in a suitable way.

math.AC↗