On the shape of possible counterexamples to the Jacobian Conjecture

We improve the algebraic methods of Abhyankar for the Jacobian Conjecture in dimension two and describe the shape of possible counterexamples. We give an elementary proof of the result of Heitmann, which states that gcd(deg(P),deg(Q)) is greater than or equal to 16 for any counterexample (P,Q). We also prove that gcd(deg(P),deg(Q)) \ne 2p for any prime p and analyze thoroughly the case 16, adapting a reduction of degree technique introduced by Moh.