We say that an **homogeneous symmetric polynomial** $f(x_1,\ldots,x_n)$ of degree $d$ is an **$n$-exception** if the dimension of the $\mathbb{R}$-span of the following set of polynomials of degree $d-1$ $$A_f=\left\{\frac{\partial f}{\partial x_1},\ldots,\frac{\partial f}{\partial x_n},\sum_{j=1}^{n}x_{j}\frac{\partial^2 f}{\partial x_{j}^2}\right\}$$ is **equal to $n$**. In symbols: $$f\ \ \text{is an}\ n\text{-exception}\ \Longleftrightarrow \dim_{\mathbb{R}}\left(\langle{A_f}\rangle\right)=n$$ Some examples of $n$-exceptions are: 1) $\quad p_3(x_1,\ldots,x_n)=x_{1}^{3}+\cdots+x_{n}^{3}\ $ is an $n$-exception, for every $n\geq 3$. > In general, the homogeneous symmetric polynomials: $$p_{k}(x_1,\ldots,x_n)=x_{1}^{k}+\cdots+x_{n}^{k}$$ $$e_{k}(x_1,\ldots,x_n)=\sum_{1\leq i_1<\cdots<i_k\leq n}x_{i_1}\cdots x_{i_k}$$ are both $n$-exception if $n\geq 3$ and $k>1$. Let's say that these examples are **trivial cases** of $n$-exceptions. Some **non trivial cases** are the following: 2) $\quad p_{2,1,1}(x_1,\ldots,x_5)\ $ is a $5$-exception. 3) $\quad e_3(x_1,\ldots,x_n)\ $ is an $n$-exception, for every $n\geq 2$. 4) $\quad 9m_{3}+21m_{2,1}+28m_{1,1,1}\ $ is a $4$-exception. 5) $\quad 5m_{4}+14m_{31}+21m_{22}+28m_{211}+35m_{1111}\ $ is a $11$-exception. > Notice that $p_{1}^{d}$ is **not an $n$-exception** for every $n$ and $d$. Also there are homogeneous symmetric polynomials that **are not $n$-exceptions** for any $n\geq 3$ like $m_{21}$ and $h_3$. > It is known that $\dim_{\mathbb{R}}(\langle{A_f}\rangle)\geq n$ when $d=3$ and $f$ is not a scalar multiple of $p_{1}^{3}$. There is a conjecture that the last inequality holds also for any degree $d\geq 4$ (see in mathoverflow: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/204706/dimension-of-the-span-of-all-partial-derivatives-of-a-given-symmetric-polynomial) What I tried is to show first the existence of $n$-exceptions for any degree $d$. When $d=3$ they are completely characterized already: > Let $n\geq 3$ and $f=a\,m_{3}+b\,m_{2,1}+c\,m_{1,1,1}$ (as a linear combination of the monomial basis, with $a,b,c\in\mathbb{R}$) is an $n$-exception if and only if $$6a(2b+(n-2)c)=4(n-1)b^2.$$ If $n=2$, the condition is $b=0$ or $b=3a$. The problem is when $d\geq 4$ I only have verified the following observation: 1) For $3\leq d\leq 6$, the symmetric polynomial $p_{2}p_{1}^{d-2}$ is a $(d+1)$-exception. and I tried to use the following fact: 2) Any homogeneous polynomial $f$ of degree $d$ is a linear combination of $k$, $d$-th powers of linear forms, for some natural $k$. > **My question**: How we can start to ***characterize $n$-exceptions for degree $d\geq 4$ in general in terms of it's coefficients in the monomial basis*** or other basis of the ring of symmetric functions ? >The study of $n$-exceptions on the ring of symmetric polynomials is important to understand the classification of **Generalized Polarization Modules** see here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00026-017-0350-4. Any idea on this is very welcome, Thank you!