English

$\mathbb Q\setminus\mathbb Z$ is diophantine over $\mathbb Q$ with 32 unknowns

Number Theory 2023-05-12 v4 Logic

Abstract

In 2016 J. Koenigsmann refined a celebrated theorem of J. Robinson by proving 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    x1xn[P(t,x1,,xn)=0]t\not\in\mathbb Z\iff \exists x_1\cdots\exists x_{n}[P(t,x_1,\ldots,x_{n})=0] where variables range over Q\mathbb Q, equivalently tZ    x1xn[P(t,x1,,xn)0].t\in\mathbb Z\iff \forall x_1\cdots\forall x_{n}[P(t,x_1,\ldots,x_{n})\not=0]. In this paper we prove that we may take n=32n=32. Combining this with a result of Z.-W. Sun, we show that there is no algorithm to decide for any f(x1,,x41)Z[x1,,x41]f(x_1,\ldots,x_{41})\in\mathbb Z[x_1,\ldots,x_{41}] whether x1x9y1y32[f(x1,,x9,y1,,y32)=0],\forall x_1\cdots\forall x_9\exists y_1\cdots\exists y_{32}[f(x_1,\ldots,x_9,y_1,\ldots,y_{32})=0], where variables range over Q\mathbb Q.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2104.02520,
  title  = {$\mathbb Q\setminus\mathbb Z$ is diophantine over $\mathbb Q$ with 32 unknowns},
  author = {Geng-Rui Zhang and Zhi-Wei Sun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.02520},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

13 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-24T00:53:17.682Z