Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Mathematics Faculty Publications Mathematics and Statistics 5-2016 The implicit function theorem and free algebraic sets Jim Agler John E. McCarthy Washington University in St Louis,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/math_facpubs Part of the Algebraic Geometry Commons Recommended Citation Agler, Jim and McCarthy, John E., "The implicit function theorem and free algebraic sets" (2016). Mathematics Faculty Publications. 25. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/math_facpubs/25 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mathematics and Statistics at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mathematics Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The implicit function theorem and free algebraic sets ∗ Jim Agler y John E. McCarthy z U.C. San Diego Washington University La Jolla, CA 92093 St. Louis, MO 63130 February 19, 2014 Abstract: We prove an implicit function theorem for non-commutative functions. We use this to show that if p(X; Y ) is a generic non-commuting polynomial in two variables, and X is a generic matrix, then all solutions Y of p(X; Y ) = 0 will commute with X. 1 Introduction A free polynomial, or nc polynomial (nc stands for non-commutative), is a polynomial in non-commuting variables. Let Pd denote the algebra of free polynomials in d variables. If p 2 Pd, it makes sense to think of p as a function that can be evaluated on matrices.