Related papers: The Skolem-Abouzaid theorem in the singular case

Let $F_1,\ldots,F_R$ be homogeneous polynomials of degree $d\ge 2$ with integer coefficients in $n$ variables, and let $\mathbf{F}=(F_1,\ldots,F_R)$. Suppose that $F_1,\ldots,F_R$ is a non-singular system and $n\ge 4^{d+2}d^2R^5$. We prove…

For almost a century, the decidability of the Skolem Problem - that is, the problem of finding whether a given linear recurrence sequence (LRS) has a zero term - has remained open. A breakthrough in the 1980s established that the Skolem…

A celebrated theorem of Shoda states that over any field K (of characteristic 0), every matrix with trace 0 can be expressed as a commutator AB-BA, or, equivalently, that the set of values of the polynomial f(x,y)=xy-yx on the nxn-matrix…

The Skolem Problem asks to determine whether a given linear recurrence sequence (LRS) has a zero term. Showing decidability of this problem is equivalent to giving an effective proof of the Skolem-Mahler-Lech Theorem, which asserts that a…

'Skolem arithmetic' is the complete theory $T$ of the multiplicative monoid $(\mathbb{N},\cdot)$. We give a full characterization of the $\varnothing$-definable stably embedded sets of $T$, showing in particular that, up to the relation of…

Let $X= \mathbb{P}^1 \setminus \{0,1,\infty\}$, and let $S$ denote a finite set of prime numbers. In an article of 2005, Minhyong Kim gave a new proof of Siegel's theorem for $X$: the set $X(\mathbb{Z}[S^{-1}])$ of $S$-integral points of…

Let $F\in\mathbb{C}[x,y,s,t]$ be an irreducible constant-degree polynomial, and let $A,B,C,D\subset\mathbb{C}$ be finite sets of size $n$. We show that $F$ vanishes on at most $O(n^{8/3})$ points of the Cartesian product $A\times B\times…

Given a propositional formula F(x,y), a Skolem function for x is a function \Psi(y), such that substituting \Psi(y) for x in F gives a formula semantically equivalent to \exists F. Automatically generating Skolem functions is of significant…

We study the problem of decomposing a non-negative polynomial as an exact sum of squares (SOS) in the case where the associated semidefinite program is feasible but not strictly feasible (for example if the polynomial has real zeros).…

We classify the polynomials $f(x,y) \in \mathbb R[x,y]$ such that given any finite set $A \subset \mathbb R$ if $|A+A|$ is small, then $|f(A,A)|$ is large. In particular, the following bound holds : $|A+A||f(A,A)| \gtrsim |A|^{5/2}.$ The…

Let $\mathbf{f} = (f_1, \ldots, f_R)$ be a system of polynomials with integer coefficients in which the degrees need not all be the same. We provide sufficient conditions for which the system of equations $f_j (x_1, \ldots, x_n) = 0 \ (1…

Let $f(x)$ be a monic polynomial in $\dZ[x]$ with no rational roots but with roots in $\dQ_p$ for all $p$, or equivalently, with roots mod $n$ for all $n$. It is known that $f(x)$ cannot be irreducible but can be a product of two or more…

New and old results on closed polynomials, i.e., such polynomials f in K[x_1,...,x_n] that the subalgebra K[f] is integrally closed in K[x_1,...,x_n], are collected. Using some properties of closed polynomials we prove the following…

There exist homogeneous polynomials $f$ with $\mathbb Q$-coefficients that are sums of squares over $\mathbb R$ but not over $\mathbb Q$. The only systematic construction of such polynomials that is known so far uses as its key ingredient…

A conjecture of Odoni stated over Hilbertian fields $K$ of characteristic zero asserts that for every positive integer $d$, there exists a polynomial $f\in K[x]$ of degree $d$ such that for every positive integer $n$, each iterate $f^{\circ…

We generalize an approach from a 1960 paper by Ljunggren, leading to a practical algorithm that determines the set of $N > \operatorname{deg}(c) + \operatorname{deg}(d)$ such that the polynomial $$f_N(x) = x^N c(x^{-1}) + d(x)$$ is…

L. Bary-Soroker and R. Shmueli (2026) have given an asymptotic formula for the number of irreducible polynomials over the finite fields $\mathbb F_q$ of $q$ elements, such that their coefficients are perfect squares in $\mathbb F_q$ and…

In these short notes, we will show the following. Let F_q be a finite field and let E/\F_q be an elliptic curve. Let S_r be the rth summation/Semaev polynomial for E. Under an assumption, we show that it is NP-complete to check if S_r…

The Skolem-Mahler-Lech theorem states that if $f(n)$ is a sequence given by a linear recurrence over a field of characteristic 0,then the set of $m$ such that $f(m)$ is equal to 0 is the union of a finite number of arithmetic progressions…

Erd\"os and Obl\'ath proved that the equation $n!\pm m!=x^p$ has only finitely many integer solutions. More general, under the ABC-conjecture, Luca showed that $P(x)=An!+Bm!$ has finitely many integer solutions for polynomials of degree…