English

$\mathbb Q\setminus\mathbb Z$ is diophantine over $\mathbb Q$ with $7$ unknowns

Number Theory 2026-07-30 v1 Logic

Abstract

In 2016 J. Koenigsmann proved that QZ\mathbb Q\setminus\mathbb Z is diophantine over Q\mathbb Q, i.e., there is a polynomial P(t,x1,,xn)Z[t,x1,,xn]P(t,x_1,\ldots,x_{n})\in\mathbb Z[t,x_1,\ldots,x_{n}] such that for any rational number tt we have t∉Z    x1,,xnQ[P(t,x1,,xn)=0].t\not\in\mathbb Z\iff \exists x_1,\ldots,x_{n}\in\mathbb Q\,[P(t,x_1,\ldots,x_{n})=0]. In this paper we show that we may take n=7n=7 which improves the previous record n=10n=10 obtained by Daans in 2024. (Actually we even extend this to any global field.) This, together with a previous result of Z.-W. Sun, implies that there is no algorithm to decide for any F(x1,,x16)Z[x1,,x16]F(x_1,\ldots,x_{16})\in\mathbb Z[x_1,\ldots,x_{16}] whether x1,,x9Qy1,,y7Q[F(x1,,x9,y1,,y7)=0].\forall x_1,\ldots,x_9\in\mathbb Q\exists y_1,\ldots,y_{7}\in\mathbb Q\,[F(x_1,\ldots,x_9,y_1,\ldots,y_{7})=0].

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.28606,
  title  = {$\mathbb Q\setminus\mathbb Z$ is diophantine over $\mathbb Q$ with $7$ unknowns},
  author = {Zhi-Wei Sun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.28606},
  year   = {2026}
}

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19 pages