Exponentiation in power series fields

Abstract

We prove that for no nontrivial ordered abelian group $G$ does the ordered power series field $\mathbb {R}((G))$ admit an exponential, i.e. an isomorphism between its ordered additive group and its ordered multiplicative group of positive elements, but that there is a non-surjective logarithm. For an arbitrary ordered field $k$, no exponential on $k((G))$ is compatible, that is, induces an exponential on $k$ through the residue map. This is proved by showing that certain functional equations for lexicographic powers of ordered sets are not solvable.