Elimination of unknowns for systems of algebraic differential-difference equations

Abstract: We establish effective elimination theorems for differential-difference equations. Specifically, we find a computable function $B(r,s)$ of the natural number parameters $r$ and $s$ so that for any system of algebraic differential-difference equations in the variables $\mathbf{x} = x_1, \ldots, x_q$ and $\mathbf{y} = y_1, \ldots, y_r$ each of which has order and degree in $\mathbf{y}$ bounded by $s$ over a differential-difference field, there is a non-trivial consequence of this system involving just the $\mathbf{x}$ variables if and only if such a consequence may be constructed algebraically by applying no more than $B(r,s)$ iterations of the basic difference and derivation operators to the equations in the system. We relate this finiteness theorem to the problem of finding solutions to such systems of differential-difference equations in rings of functions showing that a system of differential-difference equations over $\mathbb{C}$ is algebraically consistent if and only if it has solutions in a certain ring of germs of meromorphic functions.