Elementary symmetric polynomial

In mathematics, specically in commutative algebra, the

elementary symmetric polynomials are one type of basic building block for symmetric polynomials, in the sense
that any symmetric polynomial can be expressed as a
polynomial in elementary symmetric polynomials. That
is, any symmetric polynomial P is given by an expression
involving only additions and multiplication of constants
and elementary symmetric polynomials. There is one elementary symmetric polynomial of degree d in n variables for each nonnegative integer d n, and it is formed
by adding together all distinct products of d distinct variables.

the symmetric polynomial e (X1 , . . . , Xn ) , also called

an elementary symmetric polynomial, by

e (X1 , . . . , Xn ) = e1 (X1 , . . . , Xn )e2 (X1 , . . . , Xn ) em (X1 , . . . , X

Sometimes the notation k is used instead of ek.

2 Examples
The following lists the n elementary symmetric polynomials for the rst four positive values of n. (In every case,
e0 = 1 is also one of the polynomials.)

Denition

For n = 1:

The elementary symmetric polynomials in n variables X1 ,

, Xn, written ek(X1 , , Xn) for k = 0, 1, ..., n, are e1 (X1 ) = X1 .
dened by
For n = 2:
e0 (X1 , X2 , . . . , Xn ) = 1,

e1 (X1 , X2 , . . . , Xn ) = 1jn Xj ,

e2 (X1 , X2 , . . . , Xn ) = 1j<kn Xj Xk ,

e3 (X1 , X2 , . . . , Xn ) = 1j<k<ln Xj Xk Xl ,

e1 (X1 , X2 ) = X1 + X2 ,
e2 (X1 , X2 ) = X1 X2 .
For n = 3:

and so forth, ending with

e1 (X1 , X2 , X3 ) = X1 + X2 + X3 ,
e2 (X1 , X2 , X3 ) = X1 X2 + X1 X3 + X2 X3 ,
e3 (X1 , X2 , X3 ) = X1 X2 X3 .

en (X1 , X2 , . . . , Xn ) = X1 X2 . . . Xn

For n = 4:

In general, for k 0 we dene

ek (X1 , . . . , Xn ) =

e1 (X1 , X2 , X3 , X4 ) = X1 + X2 + X3 + X4 ,
e2 (X1 , X2 , X3 , X4 ) = X1 X2 + X1 X3 + X1 X4 + X2 X3 + X2 X4 + X3

Xj1 Xjk ,

e3 (X1 , X2 , X3 , X4 ) = X1 X2 X3 + X1 X2 X4 + X1 X3 X4 + X2 X3 X4 ,
e4 (X1 , X2 , X3 , X4 ) = X1 X2 X3 X4 .

1j1 <j2 <...<jk n

so that ek(X1 , , Xn) = 0 if k > n.

Thus, for each positive integer k less than or equal to n

there exists exactly one elementary symmetric polyno- 3 Properties
mial of degree k in n variables. To form the one that has
degree k, we take the sum of all products of k-subsets of The elementary symmetric polynomials appear when we
the n variables. (By contrast, if one performs the same expand a linear factorization of a monic polynomial: we
operation using multisets of variables, that is, taking vari- have the identity
ables with repetition, one arrives at the complete homogeneous symmetric polynomials.)
n

Given an integer partition (that is, a nite decreasing se(+Xj ) = n +e1 (X1 , . . . , Xn )n1 +e2 (X1 , . . . , Xn )n2 + +e
quence of positive integers) = (1 , , m), one denes j=1
1

THE FUNDAMENTAL THEOREM OF SYMMETRIC POLYNOMIALS

That is, when we substitute numerical values for the variables X1 , X2 , . . . , Xn , we obtain the monic univariate
polynomial (with variable ) whose roots are the values
substituted for X1 , X2 , . . . , Xn and whose coecients
are the elementary symmetric polynomials.

4.1 Proof sketch

The set of elementary symmetric polynomials in n variables generates the ring of symmetric polynomials in n
variables. More specically, the ring of symmetric polynomials with integer coecients equals the integral polynomial ring Z[e1 (X1 , . . . , Xn ), . . . , en (X1 , . . . , Xn )].
(See below for a more general statement and proof.) This
fact is one of the foundations of invariant theory. For
other systems of symmetric polynomials with a similar property see power sum symmetric polynomials and
complete homogeneous symmetric polynomials.

geneous symmetric polynomial P in A[X1 , . . . , Xn ]Sn

can be decomposed as a sum of homogeneous symmetric
polynomials

The theorem may be proved for symmetric homogeneous

polynomials by a double mathematical induction with respect to the number of variables n and, for xed n, with
respect to the degree of the homogeneous polynomial.
The characteristic polynomial of a linear operator is an
The general case then follows by splitting an arbitrary
example of this. The roots are the eigenvalues of the
symmetric polynomial into its homogeneous components
operator. When we substitute these eigenvalues into the
(which are again symmetric).
elementary symmetric polynomials, we obtain the coefcients of the characteristic polynomial, which are nu- In the case n = 1 the result is obvious because every polymerical invariants of the operator. This fact is useful nomial in one variable is automatically symmetric.
in linear algebra and its applications and generalizations, Assume now that the theorem has been proved for all
like tensor algebra and disciplines which extensively em- polynomials for m < n variables and all symmetric polyploy tensor elds, such as dierential geometry.
nomials in n variables with degree < d. Every homo-

P (X1 , . . . , Xn ) = Placunary (X1 , . . . , Xn )+X1 Xn Q(X1 , . . . , Xn ).

Here the lacunary part Placunary is dened as the sum
of all monomials in P which contain only a proper subset of the n variables X1 , ..., Xn, i.e., where at least one
variable Xj is missing.

Because P is symmetric, the lacunary part is determined

its terms containing only the variables X1 , ..., Xn,
4 The fundamental theorem of by
i.e., which do not contain Xn. These are precisely the
terms that survive the operation of setting Xn to 0, so
symmetric polynomials
their sum equals P (X1 , . . . , Xn1 , 0) , which is a symmetric polynomial in the variables X1 , ..., Xn that we
For any commutative ring A denote the ring of symmetric
shall denote by P (X1 , . . . , Xn1 ) . By the inductive aspolynomials in the variables X1 , . . . , Xn with coecients
sumption,
this polynomial can be written as
in A by A[X1 , . . . , Xn ]Sn .
A[X1 , . . . , Xn ]Sn is a polynomial ring in
the n elementary symmetric polynomials
ek (X1 , . . . , Xn ) for k = 1, ..., n.
(Note that e0 is not among these polynomials; since e0 =
1 , it cannot be member of any set of algebraically independent elements.)

1,n1 , . . . , n1,n1 )
P (X1 , . . . , Xn1 ) = Q(
. Here the doubly indexed j,n1 denote the
for some Q
elementary symmetric polynomials in n1 variables.
Consider now the polynomial

1,n , . . . , n1,n ) .
R(X1 , . . . , Xn ) := Q(

This means that every symmetric polynomial

P (X1 , . . . , Xn ) A[X1 , . . . , Xn ]Sn has a unique Then R(X1 , . . . , Xn ) is a symmetric polynomial in X1 ,
..., Xn, of the same degree as Placunary , which satises
representation

1,n1 , . . . , n1,n1 ) = P (X1 , . . . , Xn1 , 0

R(X1 , . . . , Xn1 , 0) = Q(
P (X1 , . . . , Xn ) = Q(e1 (X1 , . . . , Xn ), . . . , en (X1 , . . . , Xn ))
for some polynomial Q A[Y1 , . . . , Yn ] . Another way
of saying the same thing is that A[X1 , . . . , Xn ]Sn is isomorphic to the polynomial ring A[Y1 , . . . , Yn ] through
an isomorphism that sends Yk to ek (X1 , . . . , Xn ) for
k = 1, . . . , n .

(the rst equality holds because setting Xn to 0 in j,n

gives j,n1 , for all j < n ), in other words, the lacunary part of R coincides with that of the original polynomial P. Therefore the dierence PR has no lacunary
part, and is therefore divisible by the product X1 Xn
of all variables, which equals the elementary symmetric

3
polynomial n,n . Then writing P R = n,n Q , the
quotient Q is a homogeneous symmetric polynomial of
degree less than d (in fact degree at most d n) which by
the inductive assumption can be expressed as a polynomial in the elementary symmetric functions. Combining
the representations for PR and R one nds a polynomial
representation for P.
The uniqueness of the representation can be proved inductively in a similar way. (It is equivalent to the fact
that the n polynomials e1 , . . . , en are algebraically independent over the ring A.) The fact that the polynomial
representation is unique implies that A[X1 , . . . , Xn ]Sn
is isomorphic to A[Y1 , . . . , Yn ] .

4.2

An alternative proof

The following proof is also inductive, but does not involve

other polynomials than those symmetric in X1 ,...,Xn, and
also leads to a fairly direct procedure to eectively write
a symmetric polynomial as a polynomial in the elementary symmetric ones. Assume the symmetric polynomial
to be homogeneous of degree d; dierent homogeneous
components can be decomposed separately. Order the
monomials in the variables Xi lexicographically, where
the individual variables are ordered X1 > > Xn, in
other words the dominant term of a polynomial is one
with the highest occurring power of X1 , and among those
the one with the highest power of X2 , etc. Furthermore
parametrize all products of elementary symmetric polynomials that have degree d (they are in fact homogeneous)
as follows by partitions of d. Order the individual elementary symmetric polynomials ei(X1 ,,Xn) in the product
so that those with larger indices i come rst, then build for
each such factor a column of i boxes, and arrange those
columns from left to right to form a Young diagram containing d boxes in all. The shape of this diagram is a partition of d, and each partition of d arises for exactly one
product of elementary symmetric polynomials, which we
shall denote by e (X1 ,,Xn) (the t is present only because traditionally this product is associated to the transpose partition of ). The essential ingredient of the proof
is the following simple property, which uses multi-index
notation for monomials in the variables Xi.
Lemma. The leading term of e (X1 ,,Xn) is X .
Proof. The leading term of the product is the
product of the leading terms of each factor
(this is true whenever one uses a monomial order, like the lexicographic order used here),
and the leading term of the factor ei(X1 ,,Xn)
is clearly X1 X2 Xi. To count the occurrences of the individual variables in the resulting monomial, ll the column of the Young diagram corresponding to the factor concerned
with the numbers 1,i of the variables, then
all boxes in the rst row contain 1, those in the

second row 2, and so forth, which means the

leading term is X .
Now one proves by induction on the leading monomial in
lexicographic order, that any nonzero homogeneous symmetric polynomial P of degree d can be written as polynomial in the elementary symmetric polynomials. Since
P is symmetric, its leading monomial has weakly decreasing exponents, so it is some X with a partition of d. Let
the coecient of this term be c, then P ce (X1 ,,Xn)
is either zero or a symmetric polynomial with a strictly
smaller leading monomial. Writing this dierence inductively as a polynomial in the elementary symmetric
polynomials, and adding back ce (X1 ,,Xn) to it, one
obtains the sought for polynomial expression for P.
The fact that this expression is unique, or equivalently that
all the products (monomials) e (X1 ,,Xn) of elementary symmetric polynomials are linearly independent, is
also easily proved. The lemma shows that all these products have dierent leading monomials, and this suces:
if a nontrivial linear combination of the e (X1 ,,Xn)
were zero, one focusses on the contribution in the linear combination with nonzero coecient and with (as
polynomial in the variables Xi) the largest leading monomial; the leading term of this contribution cannot be cancelled by any other contribution of the linear combination, which gives a contradiction.

5 See also
Symmetric polynomial
Complete homogeneous symmetric polynomial
Schur polynomial
Newtons identities
MacMahon Master theorem
Symmetric function
Representation theory

6 References
Macdonald, I.G. (1995), Symmetric Functions and
Hall Polynomials, second ed. Oxford: Clarendon
Press. ISBN 0-19-850450-0 (paperback, 1998).
Richard P. Stanley (1999), Enumerative Combinatorics, Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 0-521-56069-1

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