Finding an automorphism of $\mathbb{C}(x,y)$ that fixes two given elements

66 Views Asked by At

Let $u,v,w \in \mathbb{C}(x,y)-\mathbb{C}$.

Is it possible to find an automorphism $f$ of $\mathbb{C}(x,y)$ that fixes $u$ and $v$, and not fixes $w$? namely, $f(u)=u, f(v)=v, f(w)\neq w$.

Perhaps this question is relevant.

Remark: If $\mathbb{C}(u,v) \subseteq \mathbb{C}(u,v)(w)=\mathbb{C}(x,y)$ is Galois of order $>1$, then my question has a positive answer: One can take any $f \neq 1$ from the Galois group.

Any comments are welcome!

1

There are 1 best solutions below

10
On BEST ANSWER

The answer is no in general.

For example, if $w=u+v$ then $f(w)=f(u)+f(v)=u+v=w$.

Same way, since $f$ fixes $\mathbb Q$, any $w \in \mbox{Span}_{\mathbb Q} \{ 1, u, v \}$ is a counter example.

You might need to throw in the condition that $1,u, v, w$ are linearly independent over $\mathbb Q$ or some algebraic independence condition, if you want to get a positive result.

Edit: As Alex pointed, linear independence is not enough. For example if $w=P(u,v)$ for some polynomial $P$, then $f(u)=u, f(v)=v$ implies $f(w)=w$.