Zariski's cancellation conjecture for polynomial algebras

About 20 years old · traced to

Let RR be an algebra over a field KK, let zz be an indeterminate, and let x1,…,xnx_1,\dots,x_n be commuting indeterminates. Zariski's cancellation conjecture. If

R[z]≅KK[x1,…,xn],R[z]\cong_K K[x_1,\dots,x_n],

then

R≅K[x1,…,xn−1].R\cong K[x_1,\dots,x_{n-1}].

The conjecture is proved for n=2n=2 and n=3n=3 under the results described in the source, including arbitrary fields when n=3n=3; for n≥4n\geq 4, it remains open to the authors' knowledge.

References

Primary source

Vesselin Drensky and Jie-Tai Yu, “Cancellation conjecture for free associative algebras”, arXiv:math/0606517 (2006).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 1

RemarkAI-assistedClaimed by OpenAI. The manuscript claims an integral complex affine fourfold that is not affine four-space although its product with affine one-space is affine five-space, with related stable-coordinate and affine-fibration counterexamples.See full solutionHide full solution

Claimed by OpenAI. The manuscript claims an integral complex affine fourfold that is not affine four-space although its product with affine one-space is affine five-space, with related stable-coordinate and affine-fibration counterexamples.

GitHub repository: https://github.com/openai/math

Manuscript: https://github.com/openai/math/blob/adc7f1241b42e322a6451854ab7e4b4c146bf78a/preprints/An-explicit-failure-of-complex-affine-space-cancellation-September-23-2026/paper.pdf

  • OpenAI-047-01-An-explicit-failure-of-complex-affine-space-cancellation.pdf468,885 bytesOpen