ADDITIVE FAMILIES OF INVARIANTS OF FORMS OF DEGREE d

Abstract

Let d be a positive integer, and F be a field of characteristic zero. Suppose that for each positive integer n, I _n, is a GL _n,(F)- invariant of forms of degree d in x₁, …, x _n, over F. We call {I _n} an additive family of invariants if I _p+q (f ⊥ g) = I _p(f).I _q(g) whenever f; g are forms of degree d over F in x _l, …, x _p; …, x _q respectively, and where (f ⊥ g)(x _l, …, x _p+q) = f(x ₁, …, x _p,) + g (x _p+1, …, x _p+q). It is well-known that the family of discriminants of the quadratic forms is additive. We prove that in odd degree d each invariant in an additive family must be a constant. We also give an example in each even degree d of a nontrivial family of invariants of the forms of degree d. The proofs depend on the symbolic method for representing invariants of a form, which we review.