arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Bernd Sturmfels.
We study algebraic algorithms for expressing the number of non-negative integer solutions to a unimodular system of linear equations as a function of the right hand side. Our methods include Todd classes of toric varieties via Gröbner bases, and rational generating functions as in Barvinok's algorithm. We report polyhedral and computational results for two special cases: counting contingency tables and Kostant's partition function.
We compare algorithms for global optimization of polynomial functions in many variables. It is demonstrated that existing algebraic methods (Gröbner bases, resultants, homotopy methods) are dramatically outperformed by a relaxation technique, due to N.Z. Shor and the first author, which involves sums of squares and semidefinite programming. This opens up the possibility of using semidefinite programming relaxations arising from the Positivstellensatz for a wide range of computational problems in real algebraic geometry. This paper was presented at the Workshop on Algorithmic and Quantitative Aspects of Real Algebraic Geometry in Mathematics and Computer Science, held at DIMACS, Rutgers University, March 12-16, 2001.
New formulas are given for Chow forms, discriminants and resultants arising from (not necessarily normal) toric varieties of codimension 2. Exact descriptions are also given for the secondary polygon and for the Newton polygon of the discriminant.
The toric Hilbert scheme parametrizes all algebras isomorphic to a given semigroup algebra as a multigraded vectorspace. All components of the scheme are toric varieties, and among them, there is a fairly well understood coherent component. However, it is unknown whether toric Hilbert schemes are always connected. In this chapter we illustrate the use of Macaulay 2 for exploring the structure of toric Hilbert schemes. In the process we will encounter algorithms from commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, polyhedral theory and geometric combinatorics.
A binomial residue is a rational function defined by a hypergeometric integral whose kernel is singular along binomial divisors. Binomial residues provide an integral representation for rational solutions of A-hypergeometric systems of Lawrence type. The space of binomial residues of a given degree, modulo those which are polynomial in some variable, has dimension equal to the Euler characteristic of the matroid associated with A.
This tutorial illustrates how to use Grayson and Stillman's computer algebra system, Macaulay2, to study schemes. The examples are taken from the homework for an algebraic geometry class given at the University of California, Berkeley in the fall of 1999. This graduate course was taught by the second author with assistance for the first author. Our choice of problems follows the material in Eisenbud and Harris' textbook, The Geometry of Schemes.
Infinite hyperplane arrangements whose vertices form a lattice are studied from the point of view of commutative algebra. The quotient of such an arrangement modulo the lattice action represents the minimal free resolution of the associated binomial ideal, which defines a toric subvariety in a product of projective lines. Connections to graphic arrangements and to Beilinson's spectral sequence are explored.
Multivariate hypergeometric functions associated with toric varieties were introduced by Gel'fand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky. Singularities of such functions are discriminants, that is, divisors projectively dual to torus orbit closures. We show that most of these potential denominators never appear in rational hypergeometric functions. We conjecture that the denominator of any rational hypergeometric function is a product of resultants, that is, a product of special discriminants arising from Cayley configurations. This conjecture is proved for toric hypersurfaces and for toric varieties of dimension at most three. Toric residues are applied to show that every toric resultant appears in the denominator of some rational hypergeometric function.
The maximal minors of a p by (m + p) matrix of univariate polynomials of degree n with indeterminate coefficients are themselves polynomials of degree np. The subalgebra generated by their coefficients is the coordinate ring of the quantum Grassmannian, a singular compactification of the space of rational curves of degree np in the Grassmannian of p-planes in (m + p)-space. These subalgebra generators are shown to form a sagbi basis. The resulting flat deformation from the quantum Grassmannian to a toric variety gives a new `Gröbner basis style' proof of the Ravi-Rosenthal-Wang formulas in quantum Schubert calculus. The coordinate ring of the quantum Grassmannian is an algebra with straightening law, which is normal, Cohen-Macaulay, Gorenstein and Koszul, and the ideal of quantum Plücker relations has a quadratic Gröbner basis. This holds more generally for skew quantum Schubert varieties. These results are well-known for the classical Schubert varieties (n=0). We also show that the row-consecutive p by p-minors of a generic matrix form a sagbi basis and we give a quadratic Gröbner basis for their algebraic relations.
Monomial ideals which are generic with respect to either their generators or irreducible components have minimal free resolutions derived from simplicial complexes. For a generic monomial ideal, the associated primes satisfy a saturated chain condition, and the Cohen-Macaulay property implies shellability for both the Scarf complex and the Stanley-Reisner complex. Reverse lexicographic initial ideals of generic lattice ideals are generic. Cohen-Macaulayness for cogeneric ideals is characterized combinatorially; in the cogeneric case the Cohen-Macaulay type is greater than or equal to the number of irreducible components. Methods of proof include Alexander duality and Stanley's theory of local h-vectors.
We construct a canonical free resolution for arbitrary monomial modules and lattice ideals. This includes monomial ideals and defining ideals of toric varieties, and it generalizes our joint results with Irena Peeva for generic ideals.
We develop numerical homotopy algorithms for solving systems of polynomial equations arising from the classical Schubert calculus. These homotopies are optimal in that generically no paths diverge. For problems defined by hypersurface Schubert conditions we give two algorithms based on extrinsic deformations of the Grassmannian: one is derived from a Gröbner basis for the Plücker ideal of the Grassmannian and the other from a SAGBI basis for its projective coordinate ring. The more general case of special Schubert conditions is solved by delicate intrinsic deformations, called Pieri homotopies, which first arose in the study of enumerative geometry over the real numbers. Computational results are presented and applications to control theory are discussed.
Resultants, Jacobians and residues are basic invariants of multivariate polynomial systems. We examine their interrelations in the context of toric geometry. The global residue in the torus, studied by Khovanskii, is the sum over local Grothendieck residues at the zeros of $n$ Laurent polynomials in $n$ variables. Cox introduced the related notion of the toric residue relative to $n+1$ divisors on an $n$-dimensional toric variety. We establish denominator formulas in terms of sparse resultants for both the toric residue and the global residue in the torus. A byproduct is a determinantal formula for resultants based on Jacobians.
This article will appear in the proceedings of the AMS Summer Institute in Algebraic Geometry at Santa Cruz, July 1995. The topic is toric ideals, by which I mean the defining ideals of subvarieties of affine or projective space which are parametrized by monomials. Numerous open problems are given.
Call a monomial ideal M "generic" if no variable appears with the same nonzero exponent in two distinct monomial generators. Using a convex polytope first studied by Scarf, we obtain a minimal free resolution of M. Any monomial ideal M can be made generic by deformation of its generating exponents. Thus, the above construction yields a (usually nonminimal) resolution of M for arbitrary monomial ideals, bounding the Betti numbers of M in terms of the Upper Bound Theorem for Convex Polytopes. We show that our resolutions are DG-algebras, and consider realizability questions and irreducible decompositions.
We study algebras k[x_1,...,x_n]/I which admit a grading by a subsemigroup of N^d such that every graded component is a one-dimensional k-vector space. V.I.~Arnold and coworkers proved that for d = 1 and n <= 3 there are only finitely many isomorphism types of such A-graded algebras, and in these cases I is an initial ideal (in the sense of Groebner bases) of a toric ideal. In this paper it is shown that Arnold's finiteness theorem does not extend to n = 4. Geometric conditions are given for I to be an initial ideal of a toric ideal. The varieties defined by A-graded algebras are characterized in terms of polyhedral subdivisions, and the distinct A-graded algebras are parametrized by a certain binomial scheme.
Given n polynomials in n variables with a finite number of complex roots, for any of their roots there is a local residue operator assigning a complex number to any polynomial. This is an algebraic, but generally not rational, function of the coefficients. On the other hand, the global residue, which is the sum of the local residues over all roots, depends rationally on the coefficients. This paper deals with symbolic algorithms for evaluating that rational function. Under the assumption that the deformation to the initial forms is flat, for some choice of weights on the variables, we express the global residue as a single residue integral with respect to the initial forms. When the input equations are a Groebner basis, this leads to an efficient series expansion algorithm for global residues, and to a vanishing theorem with respect to the corresponding cone in the Groebner fan. The global residue of a polynomial equals the highest coefficient of its (Groebner basis) normal form, and, conversely, the entire normal form is expressed in terms of global residues. This yields a method for evaluating traces over zero-dimensional complete intersections. Applications include the counting of real roots, the computation of the degree of a polynomial map, and the evaluation of multivariate symmetric functions. All algorithms are illustrated for an explicit system in three variables.
The operational Chow cohomology classes of a complete toric variety are identified with certain functions, called Minkowski weights, on the corresponding fan. The natural product of Chow cohomology classes makes the Minkowski weights into a commutative ring; the product is computed by a displacement in the lattice, which corresponds to a deformation in the toric variety. We show that, with rational coefficients, this ring embeds in McMullen's polytope algebra, and that the polytope algebra is the direct limit of these Chow rings, over all compactifications of a given torus. In the nonsingular case, the Minkowski weight corresponding to the Todd class is related to a certain Ehrhart polynomial.