Elimination of unknowns for systems of algebraic differential-difference equations

Abstract

We establish effective elimination theorems for ordinary differential-difference equations. Specifically, we find a computable function B ( r , s ) B(r,s) of the natural number parameters r r and s s so that for any system of algebraic ordinary differential-difference equations in the variables x = x 1 , … , x q \mathbfit {x} = x_1, \ldots , x_q and y = y 1 , … , y r \mathbfit {y} = y_1, \ldots , y_r , each of which has order and degree in y \mathbfit {y} bounded by s s over a differential-difference field, there is a nontrivial consequence of this system involving just the x \mathbfit {x} variables if and only if such a consequence may be constructed algebraically by applying no more than B ( r , s ) B(r,s) iterations of the basic difference and derivation operators to the equations in the system. We relate this finiteness theorem to the problem of finding solutions to such systems of differential-difference equations in rings of functions showing that a system of differential-difference equations over C \mathbb {C} is algebraically consistent if and only if it has solutions in a certain ring of germs of meromorphic functions.