In this paper, we introduce and study differential graded (DG for short) polynomial algebras. In brief, a DG polynomial algebra $\mathcal{ A}$ is a connected cochain DG algebra such that its underlying graded algebra $\mathcal{ A}^{ \#}$ is a polynomial algebra $\mathbb{ k}[x_1,x_2,\cdots, x_n]$ with $|x_i|=1$, for any $i\in \{ 1,2,\cdots, n\}$. We describe all possible differential structures on DG polynomial algebras; compute their DG automorphism groups; study their isomorphism problems; and show that they are all homologically smooth and Gorestein DG algebras. Furthermore, it is proved that the DG polynomial algebra $\mathcal{ A}$ is a Calabi-Yau DG algebra when its differential $\partial_{ \mathcal{ A}}\neq 0$ and the trivial DG polynomial algebra $(\mathcal{ A}, 0)$ is Calabi-Yau if and only if $n$ is an odd integer.
Categories: math.RA