On the Norm Equation Over Function Fields

If K is an algebraic function field of one variable over analgebraically closed field k and F is a finite extension ofK, then any element a of K can be written as a norm of someb in F by Tsen's theorem. All zeros and poles of a lead to zerosand poles of b, but in general additional zeros and poles occur.The paper shows how this number of additional zeros and polesof b can be restricted in terms of the genus of K, respectivelyF. If k is the field of all complex numbers, then we use Abel'stheorem concerning the existence of meromorphic functions ona compact Riemann surface. From this, the general case of characteristic0 can be derived by means of principles from model theory, sincethe theory of algebraically closed fields is model-complete.Some of these results also carry over to the case of characteristicp>0 using standard arguments from valuation theory.