Exercise 10.7

Let f ∈ F [ x 0 , … , x n ] . One can define the partial derivatives ∂f ∕ ∂ x 0 , … , ∂f ∕ ∂ x n in a formal way. Suppose that f is homogeneous of degree m . Prove that ∑ ⁡ i = 0 n x i ( ∂f ∕ ∂ x i ) = mf . This result is due to Euler. (Hint: Do it first for the case that f is a monomial.)

Answers

Proof. For the case that f = x 1 a 1 ⋯ x n a n is a monomial, where a 1 + … + a n = m = deg ⁡ ( f ) , then

∂f ∂ x i = a i x 1 a 1 ⋯ x i a i − 1 ⋯ x n a n , i = 1 , … , n .

Therefore x i ∂f ∕ ∂ x i = a i f , and

∑ i = 1 n x i ∂f ∂ x i = ( ∑ i = 1 n a i ) f = mf .

Since the maps f ↦ ∑ ⁡ i = 1 n x i ∂f ∂ x i and f ↦ mf are FG − linear, and since every homogeneous polynomial f is a linear combination of monomial with degree m , the relation is true for all such polynomials.

To conclude, every homogeneous polynomial f ∈ F [ x 0 , … , x n ] of degree m satisfies

∑ i = 1 n x i ∂f ∂ x i = mf .

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2022-07-19 00:00
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