Patterns of Dependence Among Powers of Polynomials

Abstract

Let F = {f_1,...,f_r} be a family of polynomials and let the ticket of F, T(F), denote the set of integers m so that ${f_j^m}$ is linearly dependent. We show that |T(F)| \le (r-1)(r-2)/2 and present many concrete examples, including one with r=6 and T(F) = {1,2,3,4,8,14}.