1 Polynomials in One Variable: 1.1 The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra

1 Polynomials in One Variable
The study of systems of polynomial equations in many variables requires a

good understanding of what can be said about one polynomial equation in
one variable. The purpose of this lecture is to provide some basic tools on
this matter. We shall consider the problem of how to compute and how to
represent the zeros of a general polynomial of degree d in one variable x:
p(x) = ad xd + ad−1 xd−1 + · · · + a2 x2 + a1 x + a0 . (1)
1.1 The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra

We begin by assuming that the coefficients ai lie in the field Q of rational
numbers, with ad 6= 0, where the variable x ranges over the field C of complex
numbers. Our starting point is the fact that C is algebraically closed.
Theorem 1. (Fundamental Theorem of Algebra) The polynomial p(x)

has d roots, counting multiplicities, in the field C of complex numbers.
If the degree d is four or less, then the roots are functions of the coefficients
which can be expressed in terms of radicals. The command solve in maple
will produce these familiar expressions for us:
> solve(a2 * x^2 + a1 * x + a0, x );
2 1/2 2 1/2
-a1 + (a1 - 4 a2 a0) -a1 - (a1 - 4 a2 a0)
1/2 ------------------------, 1/2 ------------------------
a2 a2
> lprint( solve(a3 * x^3 + a2 * x^2 + a1 * x + a0, x )[1] );
1/6/a3*(36*a1*a2*a3-108*a0*a3^2-8*a2^3+12*3^(1/2)*(4*a1^3*a3
-a1^2*a2^2-18*a1*a2*a3*a0+27*a0^2*a3^2+4*a0*a2^3)^(1/2)*a3)
^(1/3)+2/3*(-3*a1*a3+a2^2)/a3/(36*a1*a2*a3-108*a0*a3^2-8*a2^3
+12*3^(1/2)*(4*a1^3*a3-a1^2*a2^2-18*a1*a2*a3*a0+27*a0^2*a3^2
+4*a0*a2^3)^(1/2)*a3)^(1/3)-1/3*a2/a3
1
The polynomial p(x) has d distinct roots if and only if its discriminant is
nonzero. Can you spot the discriminant of the cubic equation in the previous
maple output ? In general, the discriminant is computed from the resultant
of p(x) and its first derivative p0 (x) as follows:
1
discrx (p(x)) = · resx (p(x), p0 (x)).
ad
This is an irreducible polynomial in the coefficients a0 , a1 , . . . , ad . It follows
from Sylvester’s matrix for the resultant that the discriminant is a homoge-
neous polynomial of degree 2d − 2. Here is the discriminant of a quartic:
> f := a4 * x^4 + a3 * x^3 + a2 * x^2 + a1 * x + a0 :

> lprint(resultant(f,diff(f,x),x)/a4);
-192*a4^2*a0^2*a3*a1-6*a4*a0*a3^2*a1^2+144*a4*a0^2*a2*a3^2
+144*a4^2*a0*a2*a1^2+18*a4*a3*a1^3*a2+a2^2*a3^2*a1^2
-4*a2^3*a3^2*a0+256*a4^3*a0^3-27*a4^2*a1^4-128*a4^2*a0^2*a2^2
-4*a3^3*a1^3+16*a4*a2^4*a0-4*a4*a2^3*a1^2-27*a3^4*a0^2
-80*a4*a3*a1*a2^2*a0+18*a3^3*a1*a2*a0
This sextic is the determinant of the following 7 × 7-matrix divided by a4:
> with(linalg):
> sylvester(f,diff(f,x),x);
[ a4 a3 a2 a1 a0 0 0 ]
[ ]
[ 0 a4 a3 a2 a1 a0 0 ]
[ ]
[ 0 0 a4 a3 a2 a1 a0]
[ ]
[4 a4 3 a3 2 a2 a1 0 0 0 ]
[ ]
[ 0 4 a4 3 a3 2 a2 a1 0 0 ]
[ ]
[ 0 0 4 a4 3 a3 2 a2 a1 0 ]
[ ]
[ 0 0 0 4 a4 3 a3 2 a2 a1]
2
Galois theory tells us that there is no general formula which expresses
the roots of p(x) in radicals if d ≥ 5. For specific instances with d not too
big, say d ≤ 10, it is possible to compute the Galois group of p(x) over Q .
Occasionally, one is lucky and the Galois group is solvable, in which case
maple has a chance of finding the solution of p(x) = 0 in terms of radicals.
> f := x^6 + 3*x^5 + 6*x^4 + 7*x^3 + 5*x^2 + 2*x+1:

> galois(f);
"6T11", {"[2^3]S(3)", "2 wr S(3)", "2S_4(6)"}, "-", 48,
{"(2 4 6)(1 3 5)", "(1 5)(2 4)", "(3 6)"}
> solve(f,x)[1];
1/2 1/3
1/12 (-6 (108 + 12 69 )
1/2 2/3 1/2 1/2 1/3 1/2

+ 6 I (3 (108 + 12 69 ) + 8 69 + 8 (108 + 12 69 ) ) )
/ 1/2 1/3
+ 72 ) / (108 + 12 69 )
/
The number 48 is the order of the Galois group and its name is "6T11". Of
course, the user now has to consult help(galois) in order to learn more.
1.2 Numerical Root Finding

In symbolic computation, we frequently consider a polynomial problem as
solved if it has been reduced to finding the roots of one polynomial in one
variable. Naturally, the latter problem can still be a very interesting and
challenging one from the perspective of numerical analysis, especially if d
gets very large or if the ai are given by floating point approximations. In the
problems studied in this course, however, the ai are usually exact rational
numbers and the degree d rarely exceeds 200. For numerical solving in this
range, maple does reasonably well and matlab has no difficulty whatsoever.
3
> Digits := 6:
> f := x^200 - x^157 + 8 * x^101 - 23 * x^61 + 1:
> fsolve(f,x);
.950624, 1.01796
This polynomial has only two real roots. To list the complex roots, we say:
> fsolve(f,x,complex);
-1.02820-.0686972 I, -1.02820+.0686972 I, -1.01767-.0190398 I,

-1.01767+.0190398 I, -1.01745-.118366 I, -1.01745 + .118366 I,
-1.00698-.204423 I, -1.00698+.204423 I, -1.00028 - .160348 I,
-1.00028+.160348 I, -.996734-.252681 I, -.996734 + .252681 I,
-.970912-.299748 I, -.970912+.299748 I, -.964269 - .336097 I,
ETC...ETC..
Our polynomial p(x) is represented in matlab as the row vector of its
coefficients [ad ad−1 . . . a2 a1 a0 ]. For instance, the following two commands
compute the three roots of the dense cubic p(x) = 31x3 + 23x2 + 19x + 11.
>> p = [31 23 19 11];
>> roots(p)
ans =
-0.0486 + 0.7402i
-0.0486 - 0.7402i
-0.6448
Representing the sparse polynomial p(x) = x200 − x157 + 8x101 − 23x61 + 1
considered above requires introducing lots of zero coefficients:
>> p=[1 zeros(1,42) -1 zeros(1,55) 8 zeros(1,39) -23 zeros(1,60) 1]
>> roots(p)
ans =
-1.0282 + 0.0687i
-1.0282 - 0.0687i
-1.0177 + 0.0190i
-1.0177 - 0.0190i
-1.0174 + 0.1184i
-1.0174 - 0.1184i
ETC...ETC..
4
We note that convenient facilities are available for calling matlab inside of
maple and for calling maple inside of matlab. We wish to encourage our
readers to experiment with the passage of data between these two programs.
Some numerical methods for solving a univariate polynomial equation
p(x) = 0 work by reducing this problem to computing the eigenvalues of the
companion matrix of p(x), which is defined as follows. Consider the quotient
ring V = Q [x]/hp(x)i modulo the ideal generated by the polynomial p(x).
The ring V is a d-dimensional Q -vector space. Multiplication by the variable
x defines a linear map from this vector space to itself.
Timesx : V → V , f (x) 7→ x · f (x). (2)
The companion matrix is the d×d-matrix which represents the endomorphism

Timesx with respect to the distinguished monomial basis {1, x, x2 , . . . , xd−1 }
of V . Explicitly, the companion matrix of p(x) looks like this:
 
0 0 · · · 0 −a0 /ad
 1 0 · · · 0 −a1 /ad 
 
 0 1 · · · 0 −a2 /ad 
Timesx =   (3)
 .. .. . . .. .. 
 . . . . . 
0 0 . . . 1 −ad−1 /ad
Proposition 2. The zeros of p(x) are the eigenvalues of the matrix Times x .
Proof. Suppose that f (x) is a polynomial in C [x] whose image in V ⊗ C =

C [x]/hp(x)i is an eigenvector of (2) with eigenvalue λ. Then x · f (x) =
λ · f (x) in the quotient ring, which means that (x − λ) · f (x) is a multiple
of p(x). Since f (x) is not a multiple of p(x), we conclude that λ is a root
of p(x) as desired. Conversely, if µ any root of p(x) then the polynomial
f (x) = p(x)/(x − µ) represents an eigenvector of (2) with eigenvalue µ.
Corollary 3. The following statements about p(x) ∈ Q [x] are equivalent:
• The polynomial p(x) is square-free, i.e., it has no multiple roots in C .
• The companion matrix Timesx is diagonalizable.
• The ideal hp(x)i is a radical ideal in Q [x].
5
We note that the set of multiple roots of p(x) can be computed symboli-
cally by forming greatest common divisor of p(x) and its derivative:
q(x) = gcd(p(x), p0 (x)) (4)
Thus the three conditions in the Corollary are equivalent to q(x) = 1. In

general, we compute the radical of any ideal in Q [x] as follows:

Rad hp(x)i = hp(x)/q(x)i (5)
1.3 Real Roots

In this subsection we describe symbolic methods for computing information
about the real roots of a univariate polynomial p(x). In what follows, we
assume that p(x) is a squarefree polynomial. It is easy to achieve this by
removing all multiplicities as in (4) and (5). The Sturm sequence of p(x) is
the following sequence of polynomials of decreasing degree:
p0 (x) := p(x), p1 (x) := p0 (x), pi (x) := −rem(pi−2 (x), pi−1 (x)) for i ≥ 2.
Thus pi (x) is the negative of the remainder on division of pi−2 (x) by pi−1 (x).
Let pm (x) be the last non-zero polynomial in this sequence.
Theorem 4. (Sturm’s Theorem) If a < b in R and neither is a zero of
p(x) then the number of real zeros of p(x) in the interval [a, b] is the number of
sign changes in the sequence p 0 (a), p1 (a), p2 (a), . . . , pm (a) minus the number
of sign changes in the sequence p 0 (b), p1 (b), p2 (b), . . . , pm (b).
We note that any zeros are ignored when counting the number of sign
changes in a sequence of real numbers. For instance, a sequence of twelve
number with signs +, +, 0, +, −, −, 0, +, −, 0, −, 0 has three sign changes.
If we wish to count all real roots of a polynomial p(x) then we can apply
Sturm’s Theorem to a = −∞ and b = ∞, which amounts to looking at the
signs of the leading coefficients of the polynomials pi in the Sturm sequence.
Using bisection, one gets an efficient method for isolating the real roots by
rational intervals. This method is conveniently implemented in maple:
> p := x^11-20*x^10+99*x^9-247*x^8+210*x^7-99*x^2+247*x-210:
> sturm(p,x,-INFINITY, INFINITY);
3
6
> sturm(p,x,0,10);
2
> sturm(p,x,5,10);
0
> realroot(p,1/1000);
1101 551 1465 733 14509 7255
[[----, ---], [----, ---], [-----, ----]]
1024 512 1024 512 1024 512
> fsolve(p);
1.075787072, 1.431630905, 14.16961992
Another important classical result on real roots is the following:

Theorem 5. (Déscartes’ Rule of Sign) The number of positive real roots of a
polynomial is at most the number of sign changes in its coefficient sequence.
For instance, the polynomial p(x) = x200 − x157 + 8x101 − 23x61 + 1, which
was featured in Section 1.2, has four sign changes in its coefficient sequence.
Hence it has at most four positive real roots. The true number is two.
Corollary 6. A polynomial with m terms can have at most 2m−1 real zeros.
The bound in this corollary is optimal as the following example shows:
Y
m−1
x· (x2 − j)
j=1
All 2m − 1 zeros of this polynomial are real, and its expansion has m terms.
1.4 Puiseux series

Suppose now that the coefficients ai of our given polynomial are not rational
numbers by they are rational functions ai (t) in another parameter t. Hence
we wish to determine the zeros of a polynomial in K[x] where K = Q (t).
p(t; x) = ad (t)xd + ad−1 (t)xd−1 + · · · + a2 (t)x2 + a1 (t)x + a0 (t). (6)
The role of the ambient algebraically closed field containing K is now played
by the field C ((t)) of Puiseux series. These are formal power series in t with
7
coefficients in C and having rational exponents, subject to the condition
that the set of appearing exponents is bounded below and has a common
denominator. The field C ((t)) is known to be algebraically closed.
Theorem 7. (Puiseux’s Theorem) The polynomial p(t; x) has d roots,

counting multiplicities, in the field of Puiseux series C ((t)).
The proof of Puiseux’s theorem is algorithmic, and, lucky for us, there is
an implementation of this algorithm in maple. Here is how it works:
> with(algcurves): p := x^2 + x - t^3;

2 3
p := x + x - t
> puiseux(p,t=0,x,20);
18 15 12 9 6 3
{-42 t + 14 t - 5 t + 2 t - t + t ,
18 15 12 9 6 3
+ 42 t - 14 t + 5 t - 2 t + t - t - 1 }
We note that this program generally does not compute all Puiseux series
solutions but only enough to generate the splitting field of p(t; x) over K.
> with(algcurves): q := x^2 + t^4 * x - t:

> puiseux(q,t=0,x,20);
29/2 15/2 4 1/2
{- 1/128 t + 1/8 t - 1/2 t + t }
> S := solve(q,x):
> series(S[1],t,20);
1/2 4 15/2 29/2 43/2
t - 1/2 t + 1/8 t - 1/128 t + O(t )
> series(S[2],t,20);
1/2 4 15/2 29/2 43/2
-t - 1/2 t - 1/8 t + 1/128 t + O(t )
We shall explain how to compute the first term (lowest order in t) in each of
the d Puiseux series solutions x(t) to our equation p(t; x) = 0. Suppose that
the i-th coefficient in (6) has the Laurent series expansion:
ai (t) = ci · tAi + higher terms in t.
8
Each Puiseux series looks like
x(t) = γ · tτ + higher terms in t.
We wish to characterize the possible pairs of numbers (τ, γ) in Q × C which

allow the identity p(t; x(t)) = 0 to hold. This is done by first finding the
possible values of τ . We ignore all higher terms and consider an equation
cd · tAd +dτ + cd−1 · tAd−1 +(d−1)τ + · · · + c1 · tA1 +τ + c0 · tA0 = 0. (7)
This equation imposes the following piecewise-linear condition on τ :
min{Ad + dτ, Ad−1 + (d − 1)τ, A2 + 2τ, A1 + τ, A0 } is attained twice. (8)
The crucial condition (8) will reappear in various guises later in these lectures.
As an illustration consider the example p(t; x) = x2 + x − t3 , where (8) reads
min{ 0 + 2τ, 0 + τ, 3 } is attained twice.
The sentence means the following disjunction of linear inequality systems:
2τ = τ ≤ 3 or 2τ = 3 ≤ τ or 3 = τ ≤ 2τ.
This disjunction is equivalent to
τ = 0 or τ = 3,
which gives us the lowest terms in the two Puiseux series produced by maple.
It is customary to phrase the procedure described above in terms of the
Newton polygon of p(t; x). This polygon is the convex hull in R2 of the points
(i, Ai ) for i = 0, 1, . . . , d. The condition (8) is equivalent to saying that −τ
equals the slope of an edge on the lower boundary of the Newton polygon.
1.5 Hypergeometric series

The method of Puiseux series can be extended to the case when the co-
efficients ai are rational functions in several variables t1 , . . . , tm . The case
m = 1 was discussed in the last section. We now examine the generic case
when all d + 1 coefficients a0 , . . . , ad in (1) are indeterminates. Each zero
X of the polynomial in (1) is an algebraic function of d + 1 variables, writ-
ten X = X(a0 , . . . , xd ). The following theorem due to Karl Mayr (1937)
characterizes these functions by the differential equations which they satisfy.
9
Theorem 8. The roots of the general equation of degree d are a basis for the
solution space of the following system of linear partial differential equations:
∂2X ∂2X
∂ai ∂aj
= ∂ak ∂al
whenever i + j = k + l, (9)
Pd Pd
i=0 iai ∂X
∂ai
= −X and ∂X
i=0 ai ∂ai = 0. (10)
The meaning of the statement “are a basis for the solution space of” will
be explained at the end of this section. Let us first replace this statement by
“are solutions of” and prove the resulting weaker version of the theorem.
Proof. The two Euler equations (10) express the scaling invariance of the
roots. They are gotten by applying the operator d/dt to the identities
X(a0 , ta1 , t2 a2 , . . . , td−1 ad−1 , td ad ) 1

· X(a0 , a1 , a2 , . . . , ad−1 , ad ),
= t
X(ta0 , ta1 , ta2 , . . . , tad−1 , tad ) =
X(a0 , a1 , a2 , . . . , ad−1 , ad ).
Pd
To derive (9), we consider the first derivative f 0 (x) = i=1 iai x
i−1
and
00
P d 0
i=2 i(i − 1)ai x . Note that f (X) 6=
i−2
the second derivative f (x) =
0, since a0 , . . . , ad are indeterminates. Differentiating the defining identity
P d i
i=0 ai X(a0 , a1 , . . . , ad ) = 0 with respect to aj , we get
∂X
X j + f 0 (X) · = 0. (11)
∂aj
We next differentiate ∂X/∂aj with respect to the indeterminate ai :
∂2X ∂ Xj ∂f 0 (X) j 0 ∂X 0
= − 0 = X f (X)−2 − jX j−1 f (X)−1 . (12)
∂ai ∂aj ∂ai f (X) ∂ai ∂ai
∂f 0 (X) 00 (X)
Using (11) and the resulting identity ∂ai
= − ff 0 (X) · X i + iX i−1 , we can
rewrite (12) as follows:
∂2X
= −f 00 (X)X i+j f 0 (X)−3 + (i + j)X i+j−1 f 0 (X)−2 .
∂ai ∂aj
This expression depends only on the sum of indices i+j. This proves (9).
We check the validity of our differential system for the case d = 2 and we
note that it characterizes the series expansions of the quadratic formula.
10
> X := solve(a0 + a1 * x + a2 * x^2, x)[1];
2 1/2
-a1 + (a1 - 4 a2 a0)
X := 1/2 ------------------------
a2
> simplify(diff(diff(X,a0),a2) - diff(diff(X,a1),a1));

0
> simplify( a1*diff(X,a1) + 2*a2*diff(X,a2) + X );
0
> simplify(a0*diff(X,a0)+a1*diff(X,a1)+a2*diff(X,a2));
0
> series(X,a1,4);
1/2 1/2
(-a2 a0) 1 (-a2 a0) 2 4
----------- - 1/2 ---- a1 - 1/8 ----------- a1 + O(a1 )
a2 a2 2
What do you get when you now say series(X,a0,4) or series(X,a2,4) ?

Writing series expansions for the solutions to the general equation of
degree d has a long tradition in mathematics. In 1757 Johann Lambert
expressed the roots of the trinomial equation xp + x + r as a Gauss hyper-
geometric function in the parameter r. Series expansions of more general
algebraic functions were subsequently given by Euler, Chebyshev and Eisen-
stein, among others. The widely known poster “Solving the Quintic with
Mathematica” published by Wolfram Research in 1994 gives a nice historical
introduction to series solutions of the general equation of degree five:
a5 x5 + a4 x4 + a3 x3 + a2 x2 + a1 x + a0 = 0. (13)
Mayr’s Theorem can be used to write down all possible Puiseux series solu-
tions to the general quintic (13). There are 16 = 25−1 distinct expansions.
For instance, here is one of the 16 expansions of the five roots:

X1 = − aa01 , X2 = − aa12 + aa01 , X3 = − aa23 + aa12 ,

X4 = − aa34 + aa23 , X5 = − aa45 + aa34 .
11
Each bracket is a series having the monomial in the bracket as its first term:
a0 a2 a a3 a a3 a2 a4 a a4 a a a5 a
= aa01 + a0 3 2 − a0 4 3 + 2 a0 5 2 + a0 5 4 − 5 0 a26 3 − a0 6 5 + · · ·
a1 1 1 1 1 1 1
a1 2
a a 3
a a 2
a a a 3
a a 3 4
a a 4
a a a
= aa12 + a1 3 3 − a1 4 4 − 3 0 a14 5 + 2 a1 5 3 + a1 5 5 − 5 1 a36 4 + · · ·
a2 2 2 2 2 2 2
a2 2
a a 3
a a a a2
3
= aa23 − aa0 a2 5 − aa1 a2 4 + 2 a1 aa23 a5 + a2 3 4 − a2 4 5 + 2 a2 5 4 + · · ·
a3 3 3 3 3 3 3
a3 a2a a a 2 a a a 2 a a 3 a a a3
= aa34 − aa2 a2 5 + a3 3 5 + a1 3 5 − 3 2 a34 5 − a0 4 5 + 4 1 a35 5 + · · ·
a4 4 4 4 4 4 4
a4
= aa45
a5
The
ai−1 last
bracket is just a single Laurent monomial. The other four brackets
4
ai
can easily be written as an explicit sum over N . For instance,
a0 X (−1)2i+3j+4k+5l (2i+3j +4k+5l)! ai+2j+3k+4l+1 ai aj ak al

= 2 3 4 5
· 0 2i+3j+4k+5l+1
a1 i ! j ! k ! l ! (i+2j +3k+4l + 1)! a1
i,j,k,l≥0
Each coefficient appearing in one of these series is integral. Therefore these

five formulas for the roots work over any ring. The situation is different for
the other 15 series expansions of the roots of the quintic (13). For instance,
consider the expansions into positive powers in a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 . They are

a01/5 1 2
a1 3
a2 4
a3 a4
Xξ = ξ · 1/5 + · ξ 3/5 2/5 + ξ 2/5 3/5 + ξ 1/5 4/5 −
a5 5 a0 a5 a0 a5 a0 a5 a5
where ξ runs over the five complex roots of the equation ξ5 = −1, and
a01/5 1/5
a0 1 1 2 a21 a3 3 a2 a24
1/5
= 1/5 − a1 a4
25 a4/5 a6/5
− a2 a3
25 a4/5 a6/5
+ 125 a a6/5
9/5 + 125 a a11/5
4/5 +···
a5
a5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5
a1 1 a23 2 a2 a4 7 a3 a24 6 a1 a2 a3
3/5 2/5
= a1
3/5 2/5 − 5 a3/5 a7/5
− 5 a3/5 a7/5
+ 25 a3/5 a12/5
+ 25 a8/5 a7/5
+···
a0 a5
a0 a5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5
a2 1 a21 3 a3 a4 6 a1 a2 a4 3 a1 a23
2/5 3/5
= a2
2/5 3/5 − 5 a7/5 a3/5
− 5 a2/5 a8/5
+ 25 a7/5 a8/5
+ 25 a7/5 a8/5
+···
a0 a5
a0 a5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5
a3 1 a1 a2 2 a24 1 a31 4 a1 a3 a4
1/5 4/5
= a3
1/5 4/5 − 5 a6/5 a4/5
− 5 a1/5 a9/5
+ 25 a11/5 a4/5
+ 25 a6/5 a9/5
+···
a0 a5
a0 a5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5
Each of these four series can be expressed as an explicit sum over the lattice
points in a 4-dimensional polyhedron. The general formula can be found
12
in Theorem 3.2 of Sturmfels (2000). That reference gives all 2n−1 distinct
Puiseux series expansions of the solution of the general equation of degree d.
The system (9)-(10) is a special case of the hypergeometric differential
equations discussed in (Saito, Sturmfels and Takayama, 1999). More pre-
cisely, it is the Gel’fand-Kapranov-Zelevinsky system with parameters −10
associated with the integer matrix

0 1 2 3 ··· n −1 n
A = .
1 1 1 1 ··· 1 1
We abbreviate the derivation ∂a∂ i by the symbol ∂i and we consider the

ideal generated by the operators (10) in the commutative polynomial ring
Q [∂0 , ∂1 , . . . , ∂d ]. This is the ideal of the 2 × 2-minors of the matrix

∂0 ∂1 ∂2 · · · ∂d−1
.
∂1 ∂2 ∂3 · · · ∂d
This ideal defines a projective curve of degree d, namely, the rational normal
curve, and from this it follows that our system (9)-(10) is holonomic of rank
d This means the following: Let (a0 , . . . , ad ) be any point in C d+1 such that
the discriminant of p(x) is non-zero, and let U be a small open ball around
that point. Then the set of holomorphic functions on U which are solutions
to (9)-(10) is a complex vector space of dimension d. Theorem 8 states that
the d roots of p(x) = 0 form a distinguished basis for that vector space.
1.6 Exercises
(1) Describe the Jordan canonical form of the companion matrix Timesx .
What are the generalized eigenvectors of the endomorphism (2) ?
(2) We define a unique cubic polynomial p(x) by four interpolation condi-
tions p(xi ) = yi for i = 0, 1, 2, 3. The discriminant of p(x) is a rational
function in x0 , x1 , x2 , x3 , y0 , y1 , y2 , y3. What is the denominator of this
rational function, and how many terms does the numerator have ?
(3) Create a symmetric 50 × 50-matrix whose entries are random integers
between −10 and 10 and compute the eigenvalues of your matrix.
(4) For which complex parameters α is the following system solvable ?
xd − α = x3 + x + 1 = 0.
13
(5) Consider the set of all 65, 536 polynomials of degree 15 whose coeffi-
cients are +1 or −1. Answer the following questions about this set:
(a) Which polynomial has largest discriminant ?

(b) Which polynomial has the smallest number of complex roots ?
(c) Which polynomial has the complex root of largest absolute value ?
(d) Which polynomial has the most real roots ?
(6) Give a necessary and sufficient condition for quartic equation
a4 x4 + a3 x3 + a2 x2 + a1 x + a0 = 0
to have exactly two real roots. We expect a condition which is a Boolean

combination of polynomial inequalities involving a0 , a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 .
(7) Describe an algebraic algorithm for deciding whether a polynomial p(x)

has a complex root of absolute value one.
(8) Compute all five Puiseux series solutions x(t) of the quintic equation
x5 + t · x4 + t3 · x3 + t6 · x2 + t10 · x + t15 = 0
What is the coefficient of tn in each of the five series ?
(9) Fix two real symmetric n × n-matrices A and B. Consider the set of
points (x, y) in the plane R2 such that all eigenvalues of the matrix
xA + yB are non-negative. Show that this set is closed and convex.
Does every closed convex semi-algebraic subset of R2 arise in this way ?
(10) Let α and β be integers and consider the following system of linear
differential equations for an unknown function X(a0 , a1 , a2 ):
∂ 2 X/∂a0 ∂a2 = ∂ 2 X/∂a21

∂X
a1 ∂a 1
∂X
+ 2a2 ∂a1
= α·X
∂X
a0 ∂a0
∂X
+ a1 ∂a1
∂X
+ a2 ∂a2
=β·X
For which values of α and β do (non-zero) polynomial solutions exist ?

Same question for rational solutions and algebraic solutions.
14
2 Gröbner Bases of Zero-Dimensional Ideals
Suppose we are given polynomials f1 , . . . , fm in Q [x1 ,. . . , xn ] which are known
to have only finitely many common zeros in C n . Then I = hf1 , . . . , fm i, the
ideal generated by these polynomials, is zero-dimensional. In this section we
demonstrate how Gröbner bases can be used to compute the zeros of I.
2.1 Computing standard monomials and the radical

Let ≺ be a term order on the polynomial ring S = Q [x1 ,. . . , xn ]. Every ideal
I in S has a unique reduced Gröbner basis G with respect to ≺. The leading
terms of the polynomials in G generate the initial monomial ideal in≺ (I). Let
B = B≺ (I) denote the set of all monomials xu = xu1 1 xu2 2 · · · xunn which do
not lie in in≺ (I). These are the standard monomials of I with respect to ≺.
Every polynomial f in S can be written uniquely as a Q -linear combination
of B modulo I, using the division algorithm with respect to the Gröbner
basis G. We write V(I) ⊂ C n for the complex variety defined by the ideal I.
Proposition 9. The variety V(I) is finite if and only if the set B is finite,
and the cardinality of B equals the cardinality of V(I), counting multiplicities.
Consider an example with three variables denoted S = Q [x, y, z]:
I = h (x − y)3 − z 2 , (z − x)3 − y 2, (y − z)3 − x2 ) i. (14)
The following Macaulay2 computation verifies that I is zero-dimensional:

i1 : S = QQ[x,y,z];
i2 : I = ideal( (x-y)^3-z^2, (z-x)^3-y^2, (y-z)^3-x^2 );
o2 : Ideal of S
i3 : dim I, degree I
o3 = (0, 14)
i4 : gb I
o4 = | y2z-1/2xz2-yz2+1/2z3+13/60x2-1/12y2+7/60z2
x2z-xz2-1/2yz2+1/2z3+1/12x2-13/60y2-7/60z2
y3-3y2z+3yz2-z3-x2
xy2-2x2z-3y2z+3xz2+4yz2-3z3-7/6x2+5/6y2-1/6z2
15
x2y-xy2-x2z+y2z+xz2-yz2+1/3x2+1/3y2+1/3z2
x3-3x2y+3xy2-3y2z+3yz2-z3-x2-z2
z4+1/5xz2-1/5yz2+2/25z2
yz3-z4-13/20xz2-3/20yz2+3/10z3+2/75x2-4/75y2-7/300z2
xz3-2yz3+z4+29/20xz2+19/20yz2-9/10z3-8/75x2+2/15y2+7/300z2
xyz2-3/2y2z2+xz3+yz3-3/2z4+y2z-1/2xz2
-7/10yz2+1/5z3+13/60x2-1/12y2-1/12z2|
i5 : toString (x^10 % I)
o5 = -4/15625*x*z^2+4/15625*z^3-559/1171875*x^2
-94/1171875*y^2+26/1171875*z^2
i6 : R = S/I; basis R
o7 = | 1 x x2 xy xyz xz xz2 y y2 yz yz2 z z2 z3 |

1 14
o7 : Matrix R <--- R
The output o4 gives the reduced Gröbner basis for I with respect to the
reverse lexicographic term order with x > y > z. We see in o7 that there are
14 standard monomials. In o5 we compute the expansion of x10 in this basis
of S/I. We conclude that the number of complex zeros of I is at most 14.
If I is a zero-dimensional ideal in S = Q [x1 , . . . , xn ] then the elimination
ideal I ∩ Q [xi ] is non-zero for all i = 1, 2, . . . , n. Let pi (xi ) denote the
generator of I ∩ Q [xi ]. The univariate polynomial pi can be gotten by
Gröbner basis for I with respect to an elimination term order. Another
method is to use an arbitrary Gröbner basis compute the normal form of
successive powers of xi until they first become linearly dependent.
We denote the square-free part of the polynomial pi (xi ) by
pi,red (xi ) = pi (xi )/gcd(pi(xi ), p0i (xi )).
Theorem 10. A zero-dimensional ideal I is radical if and only if the n
elimination ideals I ∩ Q [xi ] are radical. Moreover, the radical of I equals
Rad(I) = I + h p1,red , p2,red , . . . , pn,red i.
Our example in (14) is symmetric with respect to the variables, so that
I ∩ Q [x] = hp(x)i, I ∩ Q [y] = hp(y)i, I ∩ Q [z] = hp(z)i.
16
The common generator of the elimination ideals is a polynomial of degree 8:
6 6 17 4 8
p(x) = x8 + x + x + x2
25 625 15625
This polynomial is not squarefree. Its squarefree part equals
6 5 17 3 8
pred (x) = x7 + x + x + x.
25 625 15625
Hence our ideal I is not radical. Using Theorem 10, we compute its radical:
Rad(I) = I + hpred (x), pred (y), pred (z)i

= h x − 5/2y 2 − 1/2y + 5/2z 2 − 1/2z,
y + 3125/8z 6 + 625/4z 5 + 375/4z 4 + 125/4z 3 + 65/8z 2 + 3z,
z 7 + 6/25z 5 + 17/625z 3 + 8/15625z i.
The three given generators form a lexicographic Gröbner basis. We see that
V(I) has cardinality seven. The only real root is the origin. The other six
zeros of I in C 3 are not real. They are gotten by cyclically shifting

(x, y, z) = −0.14233 − 0.35878i, 0.14233 − 0.35878i, 0.15188i

and (x, y, z) = −0.14233 + 0.35878i, 0.14233 + 0.35878i, −0.15188i .
2.2 Localizing and removing known zeros

In the example above, the origin is a zero of multiplicity 8. and it would have
made sense to remove this distinguished zero right from the beginning. In
this section we explain how to do this and how the number 8 could have been
derived a priori. Let I be a zero-dimensional ideal in S = Q [x1 , . . . , xn ] and
p = (p1 , . . . , pn ) any point with coordinates in Q . We consider the associated
maximal ideal
M = hx1 − p1 , x2 − p2 , . . . , xn − pn i ⊂ S.
The ideal quotient of I by M is defined as

I : M = f ∈S : f ·M ⊆ I .
We can iterate this process to get the increasing sequence of ideals
I ⊆ (I : M ) ⊆ (I : M 2 ) ⊆ (I : M 3 ) ⊆ · · ·
17
This sequence stabilizes with an ideal called the saturation

I : M∞ = f ∈ S : ∃ m ∈ N : fm · M ⊆ I .
Proposition 11. The variety of (I : M ∞ ) equals V(I)\{p}.
Here is how we compute the ideal quotient and the saturation in Macaulay
2. We demonstrate this for the ideal in the previous section and p = (0, 0, 0):
i1 : R = QQ[x,y,z];
i2 : I = ideal( (x-y)^3-z^2, (z-x)^3-y^2, (y-z)^3-x^2 );
i3 : M = ideal( x , y, z );
i4 : gb (I : M)
o4 = | y2z-1/2xz2-yz2+1/2z3+13/60x2-1/12y2+7/60z2
xyz+3/4xz2+3/4yz2+1/20x2-1/20y2 x2z-xz2-1/2yz2+ ....
i5 : gb saturate(I,M)
o5 = | z2+1/5x-1/5y+2/25 y2-1/5x+1/5z+2/25
xy+xz+yz+1/25 x2+1/5y-1/5z+2/25 |
i6 : degree I, degree (I:M), degree (I:M^2), degree(I:M^3)
o6 = (14, 13, 10, 7)
i7 : degree (I : M^4), degree (I : M^5), degree (I : M^6)
o7 = (6, 6, 6)
In this example, the fourth ideal quotient (I : M 4 ) equals the saturation

(I : M ∞ ) = saturate(I,M). Since p = (0, 0, 0) is a zero of high multiplicity,
namely eight, it would be interesting to further explore the local ring Sp /Ip .
This is an 8-dimensional Q -vector space which tells the scheme structure at
p, meaning the manner in which those eight points pile on top of one another.
The following general method can be used to compute the local ring at
an isolated zero of any polynomial system. Form the ideal quotient

J = I : (I : M ∞ ) . (15)
18
Proposition 12. The ring S/J is isomorphic to the local ring S p /Ip under
the natural map xi 7→ xi . In particular, the multiplicity of p as a zero of I
equals the number of standard monomials for any Gröbner basis of J.
In our example, the local ideal J is particularly simple and the multiplicity
eight is obvious. Here is how the Macaulay 2 session continues:
i8 : J = ( I : saturate(I,M) )
2 2 2
o8 = ideal (z , y , x )
i9 : degree J
o9 = 8
Propositions 11 and 12 provide a decomposition of the given ideal:
I = J ∩ (I : M ∞ ). (16)
Here J is the iterated ideal quotient in (15). This ideal is primary to the
maximal ideal M , that is, Rad(J) = M . We can now iterate by applying
this process to the ideal (I : M ∞ ), and this will eventually lead to the
primary decomposition of I. We shall return to this topic in later lectures.
For the ideal in our example, the decomposition (16) is already the pri-
mary decomposition when working over the field of rational numbers. It
equals
h (x − y)3 − z 2 , (z − x)3 − y 2, (y − z)3 − x2 i =

h x2 , y 2 , z 2 i ∩ h z 2 + 15 x − 15 y + 25
2
, y 2 − 15 x + 15 z + 2
25
,
x2 + 15 y − 15 z + 2
25
, xy + xz + yz + 1
25
i
Note that the second ideal is maximal and hence prime in Q [x, y, z]. The
given generators are a Gröbner basis with leading terms underlined.
2.3 Companion matrices

Let I be a zero-dimensional ideal in S = Q [x1 , . . . , xn ], and suppose that the
Q -vectorspace S/I has dimension d. In this section we assume that some
19
Gröbner basis of I is known. Let B denote the associated monomial basis for
S/I. Multiplication by any of the variables xi defines an endomorphism
S/I → S/I , f 7→ xi · f (17)
We write Ti for the d × d-matrix over Q which represents the linear map (17)
with respect to the basis B. The rows and columns of Ti are indexed by the
monomials in B. If xu , xv ∈ B then the entry of Ti in row xu and column
xv is the coefficient of xu in the normal form of xi · xv . We call Ti the i-th
companion matrix of the ideal I. It follows directly from the definition that
the companion matrices commute pairwise:
Ti · Tj = Tj · Ti for 1 ≤ i < j ≤ n.
The matrices Ti generate a commutative subalgebra of the non-commutative
ring of d × d-matrices, and this subalgebra is isomorphic to our ring
Q [T1 , . . . , Tn ] ' S/I , Ti 7→ xi .
Theorem 13. The complex zeros of the ideal I are the vectors of joint eigen-
values of the companion matrices T 1 , . . . , Tn , that is,

V(I) = (λ1 , . . . , λn ) ∈ C n : ∃ v ∈ C n ∀ i : Ti · v = λi · v .
Proof. Suppose that v is a non-zero complex vector such that Ti · v = λi · v
for all i. Then, for any polynomial p ∈ S,
p(T1 , . . . , Tn ) · v = p(λ1 , . . . , λn ) · v.
If p is in the ideal I then p(T1 , . . . , Tn ) is the zero matrix and we conclude
that p(λ1 , . . . , λn ) = 0. Hence V(I) contains the set on the right hand side.
We prove the converse under the hypothesis that I is a radical ideal. (The
general case is left to the reader). Let λ = (λ1 , . . . , λn ) be any zero of I.
There exists a polynomial q ∈ S ⊗ C such that p(λ) = 1 and p vanishes at
all points in V(I)\{λ}. Then xi · q = λi · q holds on V(I), hence (xi − λi ) · q
lies in the radical ideal I. Let v be the non-zero vector representing the
element q of S/I ⊗ C . Then v is a joint eigenvector with joint eigenvalue
λ.
If I is a radical ideal then we can form a square invertible matrix V
whose columns are the eigenvectors v described above. Then V −1 · Ti · V is
a diagonal matrix whose entries are the i-th coordinates of all the zeros of I.
20
Corollary 14. The companion matrices T1 , . . . , Tn can be simultaneously
diagonalized if I is a radical ideal.
As an example consider the Gröbner basis given at the end of the last
section. The given ideal is a prime ideal in Q [x, y, z] having degree d = 6.
We determine the three companion matrices Tx, Ty and Tz using maple:
> with(Groebner):
> GB := [z^2+1/5*x-1/5*y+2/25, y^2-1/5*x+1/5*z+2/25,

> x*y+x*z+y*z+1/25, x^2+1/5*y-1/5*z+2/25]:
> B := [1, x, y, z, x*z, y*z]:
> for v in [x,y,z] do

> T := array([],1..6,1..6):
> for j from 1 to 6 do
> p := normalf( v*B[j], GB, tdeg(x,y,z)):
> for i from 1 to 6 do
> T[i,j] := coeff(coeff(coeff(p,x,degree(B[i],x)),y,
> degree(B[i],y)),z,degree(B[i],z)):
> od:
> od:
> print(cat(T,v),T);
> od:
[ -2 -1 -2 ]
[0 -- -- 0 --- 0 ]
[ 25 25 125 ]
[ ]
[ -1 ]
[1 0 0 0 -- 1/25]
[ 25 ]
[ ]
Tx, [0 -1/5 0 0 1/25 1/25]
[ ]
[ -2 ]
21
[0 1/5 0 0 -- 1/25]
[ 25 ]
[ ]
[0 0 -1 1 0 0 ]
[ ]
[0 0 -1 0 -1/5 0 ]
[ -1 -2 ]
[0 -- -- 0 0 2/125]
[ 25 25 ]
[ ]
[0 0 1/5 0 1/25 1/25 ]
[ ]
[ -1 ]
[1 0 0 0 1/25 -- ]
Ty, [ 25 ]
[ ]
[ -2 ]
[0 0 -1/5 0 1/25 -- ]
[ 25 ]
[ ]
[0 -1 0 0 0 1/5 ]
[0 -1 0 1 0 0 ]
[ -2 -1 ]
[0 0 0 -- 1/125 --- ]
[ 25 125 ]
[ ]
[ -2 ]
[0 0 0 -1/5 -- 1/25]
[ 25 ]
[ ]
[ -2 ]
Tz, [0 0 0 1/5 1/25 -- ]
22
[ 25 ]
[ ]
[ -1 -1 ]
[1 0 0 0 -- -- ]
[ 25 25 ]
[ ]
[0 1 0 0 -1/5 1/5 ]
[0 0 1 0 -1/5 1/5 ]
The matrices Tx, Ty and Tz commute pairwise and they can be simultaneously
diagonalized. The entries on the diagonal are the six complex zeros. We
invite the reader to compute the common basis of eigenvectors using matlab.
2.4 The trace form

In this section we explain how to compute the number of real roots of a
zero-dimensional ideal which is presented to us by a Gröbner basis as before.
Fix any other polynomial h ∈ S and consider the following bilinear form on
our vector space S/I ' Q d . This is called the trace form for h:

Bh : S/I × S/I 7→ Q , (f, g) 7→ trace (f · g · h)(T1 , T2 , . . . , Tn ) .
We represent the quadratic form Th by a symmetric d × d-matrix over Q

with respect to the basis B. If xu , xv ∈ B then the entry of Bh in row xu and
column xv is the sum of the diagonal entries in the d × d-matrix gotten by
substituting the companion matrices Ti for the variables xi in the polynomial
xu+v ·h. This rational number can be computed by summing, over all xw ∈ B,
the coefficient of xw in the normal form of xu+v+w · h modulo I.
Since the matrix Bh is symmetric, all of its eigenvalues are real numbers.
The signature of Bh is the number of positive eigenvalues of Bh minus the
number of negative eigenvalues of Bh . It turns out that this number is always
non-negative for symmetric matrices of the special form Bh . In the following
theorem, multiple real zeros of I are counted only once.
Theorem 15. The signature of the trace form Bh equals the number of real
roots p of I with h(p) > 0 minus the number of real roots p of I with h(p) < 0.
The special case when h = 1 is used to count all real roots:
23
Corollary 16. The number of real roots of I equals the signature of B1 .
We compute the symmetric 6×6-matrix B1 for the case of the polynomial

system whose companion matrices were determined in the previous section.
> with(linalg): with(Groebner):
> GB := [z^2+1/5*x-1/5*y+2/25, y^2-1/5*x+1/5*z+2/25,

> x*y+x*z+y*z+1/25, x^2+1/5*y-1/5*z+2/25]:
> B := [1, x, y, z, x*z, y*z]:
> B1 := array([],1..6,1..6):
> for j from 1 to 6 do
> for i from 1 to 6 do
> B1[i,j] := 0:
> for k from 1 to 6 do
> B1[i,j] := B1[i,j] + coeff(coeff(coeff(
> normalf(B[i]*B[j]*B[k], GB, tdeg(x,y,z)),x,
> degree(B[k],x)), y, degree(B[k],y)),z, degree(B[k],z)):
> od:
> od:
> od:
> print(B1);
[ -2 -2 ]
[6 0 0 0 -- -- ]
[ 25 25 ]
[ ]
[ -12 -2 -2 -2 ]
[0 --- -- -- -- 0 ]
[ 25 25 25 25 ]
[ ]
[ -2 -12 -2 ]
[0 -- --- -- 0 2/25]
[ 25 25 25 ]
[ ]
[ -2 -2 -12 -2 ]
[0 -- -- --- 2/25 -- ]
24
[ 25 25 25 25 ]
[ ]
[-2 -2 34 -16 ]
[-- -- 0 2/25 --- --- ]
[25 25 625 625 ]
[ ]
[-2 -2 -16 34 ]
[-- 0 2/25 -- --- --- ]
[25 25 625 625 ]
> charpoly(B1,z);
6 2918 5 117312 4 1157248 3 625664 2

z - ---- z - ------ z - ------- z - ------- z
625 15625 390625 9765625
4380672 32768
+ -------- z - ------
48828125 9765625
> fsolve(%);
-.6400000, -.4371281, -.4145023, .04115916, .1171281, 6.002143
Here the matrix B1 has three positive eigenvalues and three negative eigen-
values, so the trace form has signature zero. This confirms our earlier finding
that these equations have no real zeros. We note that we can read off the
signature of B1 directly from the characteristic polynomial. Namely, the
characteristic polynomial has three sign changes in its coefficient sequence.
Using the following result, which appears in Exercise 5 on page 67 of (Cox,
Little & O’Shea, 1998), we infer that there are three positive real eigenvalues
and this implies that the signature of B1 is zero.
Lemma 17. The number of positive eigenvalues of a real symmetric matrix

equals the number of sign changes in the coefficient sequence of its charac-
teristic polynomial.
It is instructive to examine the trace form for the case of one polynomial
25
in one variable. Consider the principal ideal
I = h ad xd + ad−1 xd−1 + · · · + a2 x2 + a1 x + a0 i ⊂ S = Q [x].
We consider the traces of successive powers of the companion matrix:
X
bi := trace Timesix = ui .
u∈V(I)
Thus bi is a Laurent polynomial of degree zero in a0 , . . . , ad , which is essen-

tially the familiar Newton relation between elementary symmetric functions
and power sum symmetric functions. The trace form is given by the matrix
 
b0 b1 b2 · · · bd−1
 b1 b2 b3 · · · bd 
 
 b2 b3 b4 · · · bd+1 
B1 =   (18)
 .. .. .. . .. 
 . . . . . . 
bd−1 bd bd+1 · · · b2d−2
Thus the number of real zeros of I is the signature of this Hankel matrix.
For instance, for d = 4 the entries in the 4 × 4-Hankel matrix B1 are
b0 = 4
−a3
b1 = a4
−2a4 a2 +a23
b2 = a24
−3a24 a1 +3a4 a3 a2 −a33
b3 = a34
−4a34 a0 +4a24 a3 a1 +2a24 a22 −4a4 a23 a2 +a43
b4 = a44
−5a34 a3 a0 −5a34 a2 a1 +5a24 a23 a1 +5a24 a3 a22 −5a4 a33 a2 +a53
b5 = a54
−6a44 a2 a0 −3a44 a21 +6a34 a23 a0 +12a34 a3 a2 a1 +2a34 a32 −6a24 a33 a1 −9a24 a23 a22 +6a4 a43 a2 −a63
b6 = a64
,
and the characteristic polynomial of the 4 × 4-matrix B1 equals
x4 + (−b0 − b2 − b4 − b6 ) · x3
+ (b0 b2 + b0 b4 + b0 b6 − b25 − b21 − b22 + b2 b4 + b2 b6 − 2b23 − b24 + b4 b6 ) · x2
+ (b0 b25 −b0 b2 b4 −b0 b2 b6 +b0 b23 +b0 b24 −b0 b4 b6 +b25 b2 −2b5 b2 b3 −2b5 b3 b4 +b21 b4
+b21 b6 −2b1 b2 b3 −2b1 b3 b4 +b32 +b22 b6 +b2 b23 −b2 b4 b6 +b23 b4 +b23 b6 +b34 ) · x
− b0 b25 b2 +2b0 b5 b3 b4 + b0 b2 b4 b6 − b0 b23 b6 − b0 b34 + b25 b21 − 2b5 b1 b2 b4 − 2b5 b1 b23
+2b5 b22 b3 − b21 b4 b6 + 2b1 b2 b3 b6 + 2b1 b3 b24 − b32 b6 + b22 b24 − 3b2 b23 b4 + b43
26
By considering sign alternations among these expressions in b0 , b1 , . . . , b6 , we
get explicit conditions for the general quartic to have zero, one, two, three,
or four real roots respectively. These are semialgebraic conditions. This
means the conditions are Boolean combinations of polynomial inequalities
in the five indeterminates a0 , a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 . In particular, all four zeros of
the general quartic are real if and only if the trace form of positive definite.
Recall that a symmetric matrix is positive definite if and only if its principal
minors are positive. Hence the quartic has four real roots if and only if
b0 > 0 and b0 b2 − b21 > 0 and b0 b2 b4 − b0 b23 − b21 b4 + 2b1 b2 b3 − b32 > 0 and
2b0 b5 b3 b4 − b0 b25 b2 + b0 b2 b4 b6 − b0 b23 b6 − b0 b34 + b25 b21 − 2b5 b1 b2 b4 − 2b5 b1 b23
+2b5 b22 b3 − b21 b4 b6 + 2b1 b2 b3 b6 + 2b1 b3 b24 − b32 b6 + b22 b24 − 3b2 b23 b4 + b43 > 0.
The last polynomial is the determinant of B1 . It equals the discriminant of

the quartic (displayed in maple at the beginning of Lecture 1) divided by a64 .
2.5 Exercises
(1) Let A = (aij ) be a non-singular n × n-matrix whose entries are positive
integers. How many complex solutions do the following equations have:
Y
n Y
n Y
n
xa1j = xa2j = · · · = xanj = 1.
j=1 j=1 j=1
(2) Pick a random homogeneous cubic polynomial in four variables. Com-

pute the 27 lines on the cubic surface defined by your polynomial.
(3) Given d arbitrary rational numbers a0 , a1 , . . . , ad−1 , consider the system

of d polynomial equations in d unknowns z1 , z2 , . . . , zd given by setting
xd + ad−1 xd−1 · · · + a1 x + a0 = (x − z1 )(x − z2 ) · · · (x − zd ).
Describe the primary decomposition of this ideal in Q [z1 , z1 , . . . , zd ].

How can you use this to find the Galois group of the given polynomial ?
(4) For any two positive integers m, n, find an explicit radical ideal I in
Q [x1 , . . . , xn ] and a term order ≺ such that in≺ (I) = hx1 , x2 , . . . , xn im .
27
(5) Fix the monomial ideal M = hx, yi = hx3 , x2 y, xy 2, y 3 i and compute
its companion matrices Tx , Ty . Describe all polynomial ideals in Q [x, y]
which are within distance = 0.0001 from M , in the sense that the
companion matrices are -close to Tx , Ty in your favorite matrix norm.
(6) Does every zero-dimensional ideal in Q [x, y] have a radical ideal in all of
its -neighborhoods ? How about zero-dimensional ideals in Q [x, y, z] ?
(7) How many distinct real vectors (x, y, z) ∈ R3 satisfy the equations
x3 + z = 2y 2, y 3 + x = 2z 2 , z 3 + y = 2x2 ?
(8) Pick eight random points in the real projective plane. Compute the
12 nodal cubic curves passing through your points. Can you find eight
points such that all 12 cubic polynomials have real coefficients ?
(9) Consider a quintic polynomial in two variables, for instance,
f = 5y 5 + 19y 4x + 36y 3x2 + 34y 2x3 + 16yx4 + 3x5

+6y 4 + 4y 3x + 6y 2x2 + 4yx3 + x4 + 10y 3 + 10y 2 + 5y + 1.
Determine the irreducible factor of f in R [x, y], and also in C [x, y].
(10) Consider a polynomial system which has infinitely many complex zeros
but only finitely many of them have all their coordinates distinct. How
would you compute those zeros with distinct coordinates ?
(11) Does there exist a Laurent polynomial in C [t, t−1 ] of the form
f = t−4 + x3 t−3 + x2 t−2 + x1 t−1 + y1 t + y2 t2 + y3 t3 + t4
such that the powers f 2 , f 3, f 4 , f 5 , f 6 and f 7 all have zero constant

term ? Can you find such a Laurent polynomial with real coefficients ?
What if we also require that the constant term of t8 is zero ?
(12) A well-studied problem in number theory is to find rational points on

elliptic curves. Given an ideal I ⊂ Q [x1 , . . . , xn ] how can you decide
whether V(I) is an elliptic curve, and, in the affirmative case, which
computer program would you use to look for points in V(I) ∩ Q n ?
28
3 Bernstein’s Theorem and Fewnomials
The Gröbner basis methods described in the previous lecture apply to ar-
bitrary systems of polynomial equations. They are so general that they are
frequently not the best choice when dealing with specific classes polynomial
systems. A situation encountered in many applications is a system of n
sparse polynomial equations in n variables which have finitely many roots.
Algebraically, this situation is special because we are dealing with a complete
intersection, and sparsity allows us to use polyhedral techniques for counting
and computing the zeros. This lecture gives a gentle introduction to sparse
polynomial systems by explaining some basic techniques for n = 2.
3.1 From Bézout’s Theorem to Bernstein’s Theorem

A polynomial in two unknowns looks like
f (x, y) = a1 xu1 y v1 + a2 xu2 y v2 + · · · + am xum y vm , (19)
where the exponents ui and vi are non-negative integers and the coefficients ai
are non-zero rationals. Its total degree deg(f ) is the maximum of the numbers
u1 + v1 , . . . , um + vm . The following theorem gives an upper bound on the
number of common complex zeros of two polynomials in two unknowns.
Theorem 18. (Bézout’s Theorem) Consider two polynomial equations in
two unknowns: g(x, y) = h(x, y) = 0. If this system has only finitely many
zeros (x, y) ∈ C 2 , then the number of zeros is at most deg(g) · deg(h).
Bézout’s Theorem is best possible in the sense that almost all polynomial
systems have deg(g)·deg(h) distinct solutions. An explicit example is gotten
by taking g and h as products of linear polynomials u1 x + u2 y + u3 . More
precisely, there exists a polynomial in the coefficients of g and h such that
whenever this polynomial is non-zero then f and g have the expected number
of zeros. The first exercise below concerns finding such a polynomial.
A drawback of Bézout’s Theorem is that it yields little information for
polynomials that are sparse. For example, consider the two polynomials
g(x, y) = a1 + a2 x + a3 xy + a4 y , h(x, y) = b1 + b2 x2 y + b3 xy 2 . (20)
These two polynomials have precisely four distinct zeros (x, y) ∈ C 2 for
generic choices of coefficients ai and bj . Here “generic” means that a certain
29
polynomial in the coefficients ai , bj , called the discriminant, should be non-
zero. The discriminant of the system (20) is the following expression
4a71 a3 b32 b33 + a61 a22 b22 b43 − 2a61 a2 a4 b32 b33 + a61 a24 b42 b23 + 22a51 a2 a23 b1 b22 b33
+22a51 a23 a4 b1 b32 b23 + 22a41 a32 a3 b1 b2 b43 + 18a1 a2 a3 a54 b21 b42 − 30a41 a2 a3 a24 b1 b32 b23
+a41 a43 b21 b22 b23 + 22a41 a3 a34 b1 b42 b3 + 4a31 a52 b1 b53 − 14a31 a42 a4 b1 b2 b43
+10a31 a32 a24 b1 b22 b33 + 22a31 a22 a33 b21 b2 b33 + 10a31 a22 a34 b1 b32 b23 + 116a31 a2 a33 a4 b21 b22 b23
−14a31 a2 a44 b1 b42 b3 + 22a31 a33 a24 b21 b32 b3 + 4a31 a54 b1 b52 + a21 a42 a23 b21 b43
+94a21 a32 a23 a4 b21 b2 b33 −318a21 a22 a23 a24 b21 b22 b23 + 396a1 a32 a3 a34 b21 b22 b23 + a21 a23 a44 b21 b42
+94a21 a2 a23 a34 b21 b32 b3 + 4a21 a2 a53 b31 b2 b23 + 4a21 a53 a4 b31 b22 b3 + 18a1 a52 a3 a4 b21 b43
−216a1 a42 a3 a24 b21 b2 b33 + 96a1 a22 a43 a4 b31 b2 b23 − 216a1 a22 a3 a44 b21 b32 b3 −27a62 a24 b21 b43
−30a41 a22 a3 a4 b1 b22 b33 + 96a1 a2 a43 a24 b31 b22 b3 + 108a52 a34 b21 b2 b33
+4a42 a33 a4 b31 b33 − 162a42 a44 b21 b22 b23 − 132a32 a33 a24 b31 b2 b23 + 108a32 a54 b21 b32 b3
−132a22 a33 a34 b31 b22 b3 − 27a22 a64 b21 b42 + 16a2 a63 a4 b41 b2 b3 + 4a2 a33 a44 b31 b32
If this polynomial of degree 14 is non-zero, then the system (20) has four
distinct complex zeros. This discriminant is computed in maple as follows.
g := a1 + a2 * x + a3 * x*y + a4 * y;
h := b1 + b2 * x^2 * y + b3 * x * y^2;
R := resultant(g,h,x):
S := factor( resultant(R,diff(R,y),y) ):
discriminant := op( nops(S), S);
Bezout’s Theorem would predict deg(g) · deg(h) = 6 common complex

zeros for the equations in (20). Indeed, in projective geometry we would
expect the cubic curve {g = 0} and the quadratic curve {h = 0} to intersect
in six points. But these particular curves never intersect in more than four
points in C 2 . How come ? To understand why the number is four and not
six, we need to associate convex polygons with our given polynomials.
Convex polytopes have been studied since the earliest days of mathe-
matics. We shall see that they are very useful for analyzing and solving
polynomial equations. A polytope is a subset of Rn which is the convex
hull of a finite set of points. A familiar example is the convex hull of
{(0, 0, 0), (0, 1, 0), (0, 0, 1), (0, 1, 1), (1, 0, 0), (1, 1, 0), (1, 0, 1), (1, 1, 1)} in R 3 ;
this is the regular 3-cube. A d-dimensional polytope has many faces, which
30
are again polytopes of various dimensions between 0 and d − 1. The 0-
dimensional faces are called vertices, the 1-dimensional faces are called edges,
and the (d − 1)-dimensional faces are called facets. For instance, the cube
has 8 vertices, 12 edges and 6 facets. If d = 2 then the edges coincide with
the facets. A 2-dimensional polytope is called a polygon.
Consider the polynomial f (x, y) in (19). Each term xui y vi appearing in
f (x, y) can be regarded as a lattice point (ui , vi ) in the plane R 2 . The convex
hull of all these points is called the Newton polygon of f (x, y). In symbols,

New(f ) := conv (u1 , v1 ), (u2, v2 ), . . . , (um , vm )
This is a polygon in R2 having at most m vertices. More generally, every

polynomial in n unknowns gives rise to a Newton polytope in Rn .
Our running example in this lecture is the the pair of polynomials in
(20). The Newton polygon of the polynomial g(x, y) is a quadrangle, and the
Newton polygon of h(x, y) is a triangle. If P and Q are any two polygons in
the plane, then their Minkowski sum is the polygon

P + Q := p + q : p ∈ P, q ∈ Q .
Note that each edge of P + Q is parallel to an edge of P or an edge of Q.

The geometric operation of taking the Minkowski sum of polytopes mir-
rors the algebraic operation of multiplying polynomials. More precisely, the
Newton polytope of a product of two polynomials equals the Minkowski sum
of two given Newton polytopes:
N ew(g · h) = New(g) + New(h).
If P and Q are any two polygons then we define their mixed area as
M(P, Q) := area(P + Q) − area(P ) − area(Q).
For instance, the mixed area of the two Newton polygons in (20) equals
13 3
M(P, Q) = M(N ew(g), New(h)) = − 1− = 4.
2 2
The correctness of this computation can be seen in the following diagram:
Figure here: Mixed subdivision
31
This figure shows a subdivision of P + Q into five pieces: a translate of P ,
a translate of Q and three parallelograms. The mixed area is the sum of the
areas of the three parallelograms, which is four. This number coincides with
the number of common zeros of g and h. This is not an accident, but it is an
instance of a general theorem due to David Bernstein (1975). We abbreviate
C ∗ := C \{0}. The set (C ∗ )2 of pairs (x, y) with x 6= 0 and y 6= 0 is a group
under multiplication, called the two-dimensional algebraic torus.
Theorem 19. (Bernstein’s Theorem)

If g and h are two generic bivariate polynomials, then the number of solutions
of g(x, y) = h(x, y) = 0 in (C ∗ )2 equals the mixed area M(New(g), New(h)).
Actually, this assertion is valid for Laurent polynomials, which means that
the exponents in our polynomials (19) can be any integers, possibly negative.
Bernstein’s Theorem implies the following combinatorial fact about lattice
polygons. If P and Q are lattice polygons (i.e., the vertices of P and Q have
integer coordinates), then M(P, Q) is a non-negative integer.
We remark that Bézout’s Theorem follows as a special case from Bern-
stein’s Theorem. Namely, if g and h a general polynomials of degree d and e
respectively, then their Newton polygons are the triangles
P := New(g) = conv{(0, 0), (0, d), (d, 0)} ,

Q := New(h) = conv{(0, 0), (0, e), (e, 0)} ,
P + Q := New(g · h) = conv{(0, 0), (0, d + e), (d + e, 0)}.
The areas of these triangles are d2 /2, e2 /2, (d + e)2 /2, and hence
(d + e)2 d2 e2
M(P, Q) = − − = d · e.
2 2 2
Hence two general plane curves of degree d and e meet in d · e points.
We shall present a proof of Bernstein’s Theorem. This proof is algorithmic
in the sense that it tells us how to approximate all the zeros numerically.
The steps in this proof from the foundation for the method of polyhedral
homotopies for solving polynomial systems. This is an active area of research,
with lots of exciting progress by work of T.Y. Li, Jan Verschelde and others.
We proceed in three steps. The first deals with an easy special case.
32
3.2 Zero-dimensional binomial systems
A binomial is a polynomial with two terms. We first prove Theorem 1.1 in
the case when g and h are binomials. After multiplying or dividing both
binomials by suitable scalars and powers of the variables, we may assume
that our given equations are
g = xa1 y b1 − c1 and h = xa2 y b2 − c2 , (21)
where a1 , a2 , b1 , b2 are integers (possibly negative) and c1 , c2 are non-zero

complex numbers. Note that multiplying the given equations by a (Laurent)
monomial changes neither the number of zeros in (C ∗ )2 nor the mixed area
of their Newton polygons
To solve the equations g = h = 0, we compute an invertible integer
2 × 2-matrix U = (uij ) ∈ SL2 (Z) such that

u11 u12 a1 b1 r 1 r3
· = .
u21 u22 a2 b2 0 r2
This is accomplished using the Hermite normal form algorithm of integer lin-
ear algebra. The invertible matrix U triangularizes our system of equations:
g=h=0
⇐⇒ x y = c1 and xa2 y b2 = c2
a1 b1
⇐⇒ (xa1 y b1 )u11 (xa2 y b2 )u12 = cu1 11 cu2 12 and (xa1 y b1 )u21 (xa2 y b2 )u22 = cu1 21 cu2 22
⇐⇒ xr1 y r3 = cu1 11 cu2 12 and y r2 = cu1 21 cu2 22 .
This triangularized system has precisely r1 r2 distinct non-zero complex solu-

tions. These can be expressed in terms of radicals in the coefficients c1 and
c2 . The number of solutions equals

r 1 r3 a1 b1
r1 r2 = det = det = area(New(g) + New(h)).
0 r2 a2 b2
This equals the mixed area M(New(g), New(h)), since the two Newton
polygons are just segments, so that area(New(g)) = area(New(h)) = 0.
This proves Bernstein’s Theorem for binomials. Moreover, it gives a simple
algorithm for finding all zeros in this case.
The method described here clearly works also for n binomial equations in
n variables, in which case we are to compute the Hermite normal form of an
33
integer n × n-matrix. We note that the Hermite normal form computation
is similar but not identical to the computation of a lexicographic Gröbner
basis. We illustrate this in maple for a system with n = 3 having 20 zeros:
> with(Groebner): with(linalg):

> gbasis([
> x^3 * y^5 * z^7 - c1,
> x^11 * y^13 * z^17 - c2,
> x^19 * y^23 * z^29 - c3], plex(x,y,z));
13 3 8 10 15 2 2 9 8 6 3 4 7
[-c2 c1 + c3 z , c2 c1 y - c3 z , c2 c1 x - c3 z y]
> ihermite( array([

> [ 3, 5, 7 ],
> [ 11, 13, 17 ],
> [ 19, 23, 29 ] ]));
[1 1 5]
[ ]
[0 2 2]
[ ]
[0 0 10]
3.3 Introducing a toric deformation

We introduce a new indeterminate t, and we multiply each monomial of g
and each monomial of h by a power of t. What we want is the solutions to
this system for t = 1, but what we will do instead is to analyze it for t in
neighborhood of 0. For instance, our system (20) gets replaced by
gt (x, y) = a1 tν1 + a2 xtν2 + a3 xytν3 + a4 ytν4

ht (x, y) = b1 tω1 + b2 x2 ytω2 + b3 xy 2 tω3
We require that the integers νi and ωj are “sufficiently generic” in a sense

to be made precise below. The system gt = ht = 0 can be interpreted
as a bivariate system which depends on a parameter t. Its zeros (x(t), y(t))
depend on that parameter. They define the branches of an algebraic function
t 7→ (x(t), y(t)). Our goal is to identify the branches.
34
In a neighborhood of the origin in the complex plane, each branch of our
algebraic function can be written as follows:
x(t) = x0 · tu + higher order terms in t,
y(t) = y0 · tv + higher order terms in t,
where x0 , y0 are non-zero complex numbers and u, v are rational numbers.
To determine the exponents u and v we substitute x = x(t) and y = y(t)
into the equations gt (x, y) = ht (x, y) = 0. In our example this gives

gt x(t), y(t) = a1 tν1 + a2 x0 tu+ν2 + a3 x0 y0 tu+v+ν3 + a4 y0 tv+ν4 + · · · ,

ht x(t), y(t) = b1 tω1 + b2 x20 y0 t2u+v+ω2 + b3 x0 y02tu+2v+ω3 + · · · .
In order for (1.6) to be a root the term of lowest order must vanish. Since
x0 and y0 are chosen to be non-zero, this is possible only if the lowest order
in t is attained by at least two different terms. This implies the following
two piecewise-linear equations for the indeterminate vector (u, v) ∈ Q 2 :

min ν1 , u + ν2 , u + v + ν3 , v + ν4 is attained twice

min ω1 , 2u + v + ω2 , u + 2v + ω3 is attained twice.
As in Lecture 1, each of these translates into a disjunction of linear equations
and inequalities. For instance, the second “min-equation” translates into
ω1 = 2u + v + ω2 ≥ u + 2v + ω3
or ω1 = u + 2v + ω3 ≥ 2u + v + ω2
or 2u + v + ω2 = u + 2v + ω3 ≥ ω1
It is now easy to state what we mean by the νi and ωj being sufficiently
generic. It means that “Min” is attained twice but not thrice. More precisely,
at every solution (u, v) of the two piecewise-linear equations, precisely two
of the linear forms attain the minimum value in each of the two equations.
One issue in the algorithm for Bernstein’s Theorem is to chose powers of
t that are small but yet generic. In our example, the choice ν1 = ν2 = ν3 =
ν4 = ω3 = 0, ω1 = ω2 = 1 is generic. Here the two polynomial equations are
gt (x, y) = a1 + a2 x + a3 xy + a4 y, ht (x, y) = b1 t + b2 x2 yt + b3 xy 2 ,
and the corresponding two piecewise-linear equations are

min 0, u, u + v, v and min 1, 2u + v + 1, u + 2v are attained twice.
35
This system has precisely three solutions:

(u, v) ∈ (1, 0), (0, 1/2), (−1, 0) .
For each of these pairs (u, v), we now obtain a binomial system g0 (x0 ,y0) =
h0 (x0 , y0 ) which
expresses the fact that the lowest terms in gt x(t), y(t) and
ht x(t), y(t) do indeed vanish. The three binomial systems are
• g 0 (x0 , y0) = a1 + a4 y0 and h0 (x0 , y0) = b1 + b3 x0 y02 for (u, v) = (1, 0).
• g 0 (x0 , y0) = a1 + a2 x0 and h0 (x0 , y0) = b1 + b3 x0 y02 for (u, v) = (0, 1/2).
• g 0 (x0 , y0) = a2 x0 + a3 x0 y0 and h0 (x0 , y0 ) = b2 x20 y0 + b3 x0 y02 for (u, v) =
(−1, 0).
These binomial systems have one, two and one root respectively. For in-
stance, the unique Puiseux series solution for (u, v) = (1, 0) has
x0 = −a24 b1 /a21 b3 and y0 = −a1 /a4 .
Hence our algebraic function has a total number of four branches. If one
wishes more information about the four branches, one can now compute
further terms in the Puiseux expansions of these branches. For instance,
a2 b a34 b21 (a1 a3 −a2 a4 )
x(t) = − a42 b13 · t + 2· a51 b23
· t2
1
a44 b21 (a31 a4 b2 −5a21 a23 b1 +12a1 a2 a3 a4 b1 −7a22 a24 b1 )
+ a81 b83
· t3 + . . .
b1 (a1 a3 −a2 a4 ) a4 b21 (a1 a3 −a2 a4 )(a1 a3 −2a2 a4 )
y(t) = − aa14 + a21 b3
·t + a51 b23
· t2 + . . . .
For details on computing multivariate Puiseux series see (McDonald 1995).
3.4 Mixed subdivisions of Newton polytopes

We fix a generic toric deformation gt = ht = 0 of our equations. In this sec-
tion we introduce a polyhedral technique for solving the associated piecewise
linear equation and, in order to prove Bernstein’s Theorem, we show that
the total number of branches equals the mixed area of the Newton polygons.
Let us now think of gt and ht as Laurent polynomials in three variables
(x, y, t) whose zero set is a curve in (C ∗ )3 . The Newton polytopes of these
trivariate polynomials are the following two polytopes in R3 :

P := conv (0, 0, ν1 ), (1, 0, ν2), (1, 1, ν3), (0, 1, ν4)

and Q := conv (0, 0, ω1), (2, 1, ω2), (1, 2, ω3) .
36
The Minkowski sum P + Q is a polytope in R3 . By a facet of P + Q we mean
a two-dimensional face. A facet F of P +Q is a lower facet if there is a vector
(u, v) ∈ R 2 such that (u, v, 1) is an inward pointing normal vector to P + Q
at F . Our genericity conditions for the integers νi and ωj is equivalent to:
(1) The Minkowski sum P + Q is a 3-dimensional polytope.
(2) Every lower facet of P + Q has the form F1 + F2 where either
(a) F1 is a vertex of P and F2 is a facet of Q, or
(b) F1 is an edge of P and F2 is an edge of Q, or
(c) F1 is a facet of P and F2 is a vertex of Q.
As an example consider our lifting from before, ν1 = ν2 = ν3 = ν4 = ω3 = 0
and ω1 = ω2 = 1. It meets the requirements (1) and (2). The polytope P
is a quadrangle and Q is triangle. But they lie in non-parallel planes in R3 .
Their Minkowski sum P + Q is a 3-dimensional polytope with 10 vertices:
Figure here: The 3-dimensional polytope P+Q
The union of all lower facets of P + Q is called the lower hull of the
polytope P + Q. Algebraically speaking, the lower hull is the subset of all
points in P + Q at which some linear functional of the form (x1 , x2 , x3 ) 7→
ux1 + vx2 + x3 attains its minimum. Geometrically speaking, the lower hull
is that part of the boundary of P + Q which is visible from below. Let
π : R 3 → R 2 denote the projection onto the first two coordinates. Then
π(P ) = N ew(g), π(Q) = New(h), and π(P +Q) = New(g)+New(h).
The map π restricts to a bijection from the lower hull onto New(g)+New(h).
The set of polygons ∆ := {π(F ) : F lower facet of P + Q} defines a sub-
division of N ew(g) + New(h). A subdivision ∆ constructed by this process,
for some choice of νi and ωj , is called a mixed subdivision of the given Newton
polygons. The polygons π(F ) are the cells of the mixed subdivision ∆.
Every cell of a mixed subdivision ∆ has the form F1 + F2 where either
(a) F1 = {(ui , vi )} where xui y vi appears in g and F2 is the projection of
a facet of Q, or
37
(b) F1 is the projection of an edge of P and F2 is the projection of an
edge of Q, or
(c) F1 is the projection of a facet of P and F2 = {(ui, vi )} where xui y vi

appears in h.
The cells of type (b) are called the mixed cells of ∆.
Lemma 20. Let ∆ be any mixed subdivision for g and h. Then the sum of
the areas of the mixed cells in ∆ equals the mixed area M(New(g), New(h)).
Proof. Let γ and δ be arbitrary positive reals and consider the polytope
γP + δQ in R 3 . Its projection into the plane R2 equals
π(γP + δQ) = γπ(P ) + δπ(Q) = γ · New(g) + δ · New(h).
Let A(γ, δ) denote the area of this polygon. This polygon can be subdivided
into cells γF1 + δF2 where F1 + F2 runs over all cells of ∆. Note that
area(γF1 + δF2 ) equals δ2 · area(F1 + F2 ) if F1 + F2 is a cell of type (a),
γδ ·area(F1 +F2 ) if it is a mixed cell, and γ2 ·area(F1 +F2 ) if is has type (c).
The sum of these areas equals A(γ, δ). Therefore A(γ, δ) = A(a) · δ 2 + A(b) ·
γδ + A(c) · γ 2 , where A(b) is the sum of the areas of the mixed cells in ∆. We
conclude A(b) = A(1, 1) − A(1, 0) − A(0, 1) = M(New(g), New(h)).
The following lemma makes the connection with the previous section.
Lemma 21. A pair (u, v) ∈ Q 2 solves the piecewise-linear min-equations if

and only if (u, v, 1) is the normal vector to a mixed lower facet of P + Q.
This implies that the valid choices of (u, v) are in bijection with the mixed
cells in the mixed subdivision ∆. Each mixed cell of ∆ is expressed uniquely
as the Minkowski sum of a Newton segment New(g0) and a Newton segment
New(h0 ), where g 0 is a binomial consisting of two terms of g, and h0 is a
binomial consisting of two terms of h. Thus each mixed cell in ∆ can be
identified with a system of two binomial equations g0(x, y) = h0 (x, y) = 0.
In this situation we can rewrite our system as follows:
gt (x(t), y(t)) = g 0(x0 , y0 ) · ta + higher order terms in t,

ht (x(t), y(t)) = h0 (x0 , y0 ) · tb + higher order terms in t,
where a and b suitable rational numbers. This implies the following lemma.
38
Lemma 22. Let (u, v) as in Lemma 21. The corresponding choices of
(x0 , y0) ∈ (C ∗ )2 are the solutions of the binomial system g 0 (x0 , y0) = h0 (x0 , y0) =
0.
We are now prepared to complete the proof of Bernstein’s Theorem.

This is done by showing that the equations gt (x, y) = ht (x, y) = 0 have
M(New(g), New(h)) many distinct isolated solutions in (K∗ )2 where K =
C ((t)) is the algebraically closed field of Puiseux series.
By Section 3.2, the number of roots (x0 , y0 ) ∈ (C ∗ )2 of the binomial
system in Lemma 22 coincides with the area of the mixed cell New(g0 ) +
New(h0 ). Each of these roots provides the leading coefficients in a Puiseux
series solution (x(t), y(t)) to our equations. Conversely, by Lemma 21 every
series solution arises from some mixed cell of ∆. We conclude that the number
of series solutions equals the sum of these areas over all mixed cells in ∆. By
Lemma 20, this quantity coincides with the mixed area M(New(f ), New(g)).
General facts from algebraic geometry guarantee that the same number of
roots is attained for almost all choices of coefficients, and that we can descend
from the field K to the complex numbers C under the substitution t = 1.
Our proof of Bernstein’s Theorem gives rise to a numerical algorithm
for finding of all roots of a sparse system of polynomial equations. This
algorithm belongs to the general class of numerical continuation methods
(Allgower & Georg, 1990), which are sometimes also called homotopy methods
(Drexler 1978). The idea is to trace each of the branches of the algebraic
curve (x(t), y(t)) between t = 0 and t = 1. We have shown that the number of
branches equals the mixed area. Our constructions give sufficient information
about the Puiseux series so that we can approximate (x(t), y(t)) for any t in a
small neighborhood of zero. Using numerical continuation, it is now possible
to approximate (x(1), y(1)). We return to this topic in a later lecture.
3.5 Khovanskii’s Theorem on Fewnomials

Polynomial equations arise in many mathematical models in science and
engineering. In such applications one is typically interested in solutions over
the real numbers R instead of the complex numbers C . This study of real
roots of polynomial systems is considerably more difficult than the study of
complex roots. Even the most basic questions remain unanswered to-date.
Let us start out with a very concrete such question:
39
Question 23. What is the maximum number of isolated real roots of any
system of two polynomial equations in two variables each having four terms ?
The polynomial equations considered here look like
f (x, y) = a1 xu1 y v1 + a2 xu2 y v2 + a3 xu3 y v3 + a4 xu4 y v4 ,

g(x, y) = b1 xũ1 y ṽ1 + b2 xũ2 y ṽ2 + b3 xũ3 y ṽ3 + b4 xũ4 y ṽ4 .
where ai , bj are arbitrary real numbers and ui , vj , ũi , ṽj are arbitrary integers.
To stay consistent with our earlier discussion, we shall count only solutions
(x, y) in (R ∗ )2 , that is, we require that both x and y are non-zero reals.
There is an obvious lower bound for the number Question 23: thirty-six.
It is easy to write down a system of the above form that has 36 real roots:
f (x) = (x2 − 1)(x2 − 2)(x2 − 3) and g(y) = (y 2 − 1)(y 2 − 2)(y 2 − 3).
Each of the polynomials f and g depends on one variable only, and it has 6
non-zero real roots in that variable. Therefore the system f (x) = g(y) = 0
has 36 distinct isolated roots in (R∗ )2 . Note also that the expansions of f
and g have exactly four terms each, as required.
A priori it is not clear whether Question 23 even makes sense: why should
such a maximum exist ? It certainly does not exist if we consider complex
zeros, because one can get arbitrarily many complex zeros by increasing the
degrees of the equations. The point is that such an unbounded increase of
roots is impossible over the real numbers. This was proved by Khovanskii
(1980). He found a bound on the number of real roots which does not depend
on the degrees of the given equations. We state the version for positive roots.
Theorem 24. (Khovanskii’s Theorem) Consider n polynomials in n vari-

ables involving m distinct monomials in total. The number of isolated roots
m
in the positive orthant (R + )n of any such system is at most 2( 2 ) · (n + 1)m .
The basic idea behind the proof of Khovanskii’s Theorem is to estab-

lish the following more general result. We consider systems of n equa-
tions which can be expressed as polynomial functions in at most m mono-
mials in x = (x1 , . . . , xn ). If we abbreviate the i-th such monomial by
xai := xa1i1 xa2i2 · · · xanin , then we can write our n polynomials as

Fi xa1 , xa2 , . . . , xam = 0 (i = 1, 2, . . . , n)
40
We claim that the number of real zeros in the positive orthant is at most
m X
n
m Y
d
2( 2 ) · 1 + deg(Fi) · deg(Fi ).
i=1 i=1
Theorem 2.3 concerns the case where deg(Fi ) = 1 for all i.

We proceed by induction on m − n. If m = n then (2.3) is expressed in
n monomials in n unknowns. By a multiplicative change of variables
xi 7→ z1ui1 z2ui2 · · · znuin
we can transform our d monomials into the n coordinate functions z1 , . . . , zn .

(Here the uij can be rational numbers, since all roots under consideration are
positive reals.) Our assertion follows from Bezout’s Theorem, which states
that the number of isolated complex roots is at most the product of the
degrees of the equations.
Now suppose m > n. We introduce a new variable t, and we multiply
one of the given monomials by t. For instance, we may do this to the first
monomial and set

Gi (t, x1 , . . . , xn ) := Fi xa1 · t , xa2 , . . . , xam (i = 1, 2, . . . , n)
This is a system of equations in x depending on the parameter t. We study

the behavior of its positive real roots as t moves from 0 to 1. At t = 0 we have
a system involving one monomial less, so the induction hypothesis provides
a bound on the number of roots. Along our trail from 0 to 1 we encounter
some bifurcation points at which two new roots are born. Hence the number
of roots at t = 1 is at most twice the number of bifurcation points plus the
number of roots of t = 0.
Each bifurcation point corresponds to a root (x, t) of the augmented sys-
tem
J(t, x) = G1 (t, x) = · · · = Gn (t, x) = 0, (2.4)
where J(t, x) denotes the toric Jacobian:

∂
J(t, x1 , . . . , xm ) = det xi · Gj (t, x) .
∂xj 1≤i,j≤m
Now, the punch line is that each of the n + 1 equations in (2.4) – in-
cluding the Jacobian – can be expressed in terms of only m monomials
41
xa1 · t, xa2 , · · · , xam . Therefore we can bound the number of bifurcation
points by the induction hypothesis, and we are done.
This was only to give the flavor of how Theorem 2.3 is proved. There are
combinatorial and topological fine points which need most careful attention.
The reader will find the complete proof in (Khovanskii 1980), in (Khovanskii
1991) or in (Benedetti & Risler 1990).
Khovanskii’s Theorem implies an upper bound for the root count sug-
gested in Question 23. After multiplying one of the given equations by a
suitable monomial, we may assume that our system has seven distinct mono-
mials. Substituting n = 2 and m = 7 into Khovanskii’s formula, we see that
7
there are at most 2(2) · (2 + 1)7 = 4, 586, 471, 424 roots in the positive quad-
rant. By summing over all four quadrants, we conclude that the maximum
7
in Question 23 lies between 36 and 18, 345, 885, 696 = 22 · 2(2) · (2 + 1)7 .
The gap between 36 and 18, 345, 885, 696 is frustratingly large. Experts agree
that the truth should be closer to the lower bound than to the upper bound,
but at the moment nobody knows the exact value. Could it be 36 ?
The original motivation for Khovanskii’s work was the following conjec-
ture from the 1970’s due to Kouchnirenko. Consider any system of n poly-
nomial equations in n unknown, where the i-th equation has at most mi
terms. The number of isolated real roots in (R+ )n of such a system is at most
(m1 −1)(m2 −1) · · · (md −1). This number is attained by equations in distinct
variables, as was demonstrated by our example with d = 2, m1 = m2 = 4
which has (m1 − 1)(m2 − 1) = 16 real zeros.
Remarkably, Kouchnirenko’s conjecture remained open for many years
after Khovanskii had developed his theory of fewnomials which includes the
above theorem. Only two years ago, Bertrand Haas (2000) found the follow-
ing counterexample to Kouchnirenko’s conjecture in the case d = 2, m1 =
m2 = 4. Proving the following proposition from scratch is a nice challenge.
Proposition 25. (Haas) The two equations
x108 + 1.1y 54 − 1.1y = y 108 + 1.1x54 − 1.1x = 0
have five distinct strictly positive solutions (x, y) ∈ (R + )2 .
It was proved by Li, Rojas and Wang (2001) that the lower bound pro-
vided by Haas’ example coincides with the upper bound for two trinomials.
42
Theorem 26. (Li, Rojas and Wang) A system of two trinomials
f (x, y) = a1 xu1 y v1 + a2 xu2 y v2 + a3 xu3 y v3 ,

g(x, y) = b1 xũ1 y ṽ1 + b2 xũ2 y ṽ2 + b3 xũ3 y ṽ3 ,
with ai , bj ∈ R and ui , vj , ũi, ṽj ∈ Z has at most five positive real zeros.
3.6 Exercises
(1) Consider the intersection of a general conic and a general cubic curve
a1 x2 + a2 xy + a3 y 2 + a4 x + a5 y + a6 = 0
b1 x3 +b2 x2 y+b3 xy 2 +b4 y 3 +b5 x2 +b6 xy+b7 y 2 +b8 x+b9 y+b10 = 0
Compute an explicit polynomial in the unknowns ai , bj such that equa-

tions have six distinct solutions whenever your polynomial is non-zero.
(2) Draw the Newton polytope of the following polynomial
f (x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) = (x1 −x2 )(x1 −x3 )(x1 −x4 )(x2 −x3 )(x2 −x4 )(x3 −x4 ).
(3) For general αi , βj ∈ Q , how many vectors (x, y) ∈ (C ∗ )2 satisfy
α1 x3 y + α2 xy 3 = α3 x + α4 y and β1 x2 y 2 + β2 xy = β3 x2 + β4 y 2 ?
Can your bound be attained with all real vectors (x, y) ∈ (R∗ )2 ?
(4) Find the first three terms in each of the four Puiseux series solutions
(x(t), y(t)) of the two equations
t2 x2 + t5 xy + t11 y 2 + t17 x + t23 y + t31 = 0

t3 x2 + t7 xy + t13 y 2 + t19 x + t29 y + t37 = 0
(5) State and prove Bernstein’s Theorem for n equations in n variables.
(6) Bernstein’s Theorem can be used in reverse, namely, we can calculate

the mixed volume of n polytopes by counting the number of zeros in
(C ∗ )n of a sparse system of polynomial equations. Pick your favorite
three distinct three-dimensional lattice polytopes in R3 and compute
their mixed volume with this method using Macaulay 2.
43
(7) Show that Kouchnirenko’s Conjecture is true for d = 2 and m1 = 2.
(8) Prove Proposition 25. Please use any computer program of your choice.
(9) Can Haas’ example be modified to show that the answer to Question
23 is strictly larger than 36 ?
4 Resultants
Elimination theory deals with the problem of eliminating one or more vari-
ables from a system of polynomial equations, thus reducing the given problem
to a smaller problem in fewer variables. For instance, if we wish to solve
a0 + a1 x + a2 x2 = b0 + b1 x + b2 x2 = 0,
with a2 6= 0 and b2 6= 0 then we can eliminate the variable x to get
a20 b22 − a0 a1 b1 b2 − 2a0 a2 b0 b2 + a0 a2 b21 + a21 b0 b2 − a1 a2 b0 b1 + a22 b20 = 0. (22)
This polynomial of degree 4 is the resultant. It vanishes which vanishes if

and only if the given quadratic polynomials have a common complex root x.
The resultant (22) has the following three determinantal representations:

a0 a1 a2 0
a0 a1 a2
0 a0 a1 a2 [01] [02]
= − b0
b1 b2 = − (23)
b0 b1 b2 0 [02] [12]
[01] [02] 0
0 b0 b1 b2
where [ij] = ai bj − aj bi . Our aim in this section is to discuss such formulas.

The computation of resultants is an important tool for solving polynomial
systems. It is particularly well suited for eliminating all but one variable from
a system of n polynomials in n unknowns which has finitely many solutions.
4.1 The univariate resultant

Consider two general polynomials in one variable of degrees d and e:
f = a0 + a1 x + a2 x2 + · · · + ad−1 xd−1 + ad xd ,
g = b0 + b1 x + b2 x2 + · · · + be−1 xe−1 + be xe .
44
Theorem 27. There exists a unique (up to sign) irreducible polynomial
Res in Z[a0, a1 , . . . , ad , b0 , b1 , . . . , bd ] which vanishes whenever the polynomi-
als f (x) and g(x) have a common zero.
Here and throughout this section “common zeros” may lie in any alge-
braically closed field (say, C ) which contains the field to which we specialize
the coefficients ai and bj of the given polynomials (say, Q ). Note that a poly-
nomial with integer coefficients being “irreducible” implies that the coeffi-
cients are relatively prime. The resultant Res = Resx (f, g) can be expressed
as the determinant of the Sylvester matrix

a0 b0

a1 a0 b1 b0

. .
a1 . . b1 . .
. . . .
.. . . a0 .. . . b0

.. ..
Resx (f, g) = . a1 . b1 (24)

ad be

.
.. ..
.
ad be

..
.
..
.

ad be
where the blank spaces are filled with zeroes. See the left formula in (22).
There are many other useful formulas for the resultant. For instance,
suppose that the roots of f are ξ1 , . . . , ξd and the roots of g are η1 , . . . , ηe .
Then we have the following product formulas:
Y
d Y
e Y
d Y
e
Resx (f, g) = ae0 bd0 (ξi − ηj ) = ae0 g(ξi) = (−1)de bd0 f (ηj ).
i=1 j=1 i=1 j=1
¿From this we conclude the following proposition.
Proposition 28. If Cf and Cg are the companion matrices of f and g then

Resx (f, g) = ae0 · det g(Cf ) = (−1)de bd0 · det f (Cg ) .
If f and g are polynomials of the same degree d = e, then the following

method for computing the resultant is often used in practise. Compute the
45
following polynomial in two variables, which is called the Bézoutian
f (x)g(y) − f (y)g(x) X
d−1
B(x, y) = = cij xi y j .
x−y i,j=0
Form the symmetric d × d-matrix C = (cij ). Its entries cij are sums of
brackets [kl] = ak bl − al bk . The case d = 2 appears in (22) on the right.
Theorem 29. (Bézout resultant) The determinant of C equals ±Resx (f, g).
Proof. The resultant Resx (f, g) is an irreducible polynomial of degree 2d in
a0 , . . . , ad , b0 , . . . , bd . The determinant of C is also a polynomial of degree 2d.
We will show that the zero set of Resx (f, g) is contained in the zero set of
det(C). This implies that the two polynomials are equal up to a constant.
Looking at leading terms one finds the constant to be either 1 or −1.
If (a0 , . . . , ad , b0 , . . . , bd ) is in the zero set of Resx (f, g) then the sys-
tem f = g = 0 has a complex solution x0 . Then B(x0 , y) is identically
zero as a polynomial in y. This implies that the non-zero complex vector
(1, x0 , x20 , . . . , xm−1
0 ) lies in the kernel of C, and therefore det(C) = 0.
The 3 × 3-determinants in the middle of (22) shows that one can also use
mixtures of Bézout matrices and Sylvester matrices. Such hybrid formulas for
resultants are very important in higher-dimensional problems as we shall see
below. Let us first show three simple applications of the univariate resultant.
Example. (Intersecting two algebraic curves in the real plane)
Consider two polynomials in two variables, say,
f = x4 + y 4 − 1 and g = x5 y 2 − 4x3 y 3 + x2 y 5 − 1.
We wish to compute the intersection of the curves {f = 0} and {g = 0} in

the real plane R 2 , that is, all points (x, y) ∈ R 2 with f (x, y) = g(x, y) = 0.
To this end we evaluate the resultant with respect to one of the variables,
Resx (f, g) = 2y 28 − 16y 27 + 32y 26 + 249y 24 + 48y 23 − 128y 22 + 4y 21

−757y 20 − 112y 19 + 192y 18 − 12y 17 + 758y 16 + 144y 15 − 126y 14
+28y 13 − 251y 12 − 64y 11 + 30y 10 − 36y 9 − y 8 + 16y 5 + 1.
This is an irreducible polynomial in Q [y]. It has precisely four real roots
y = −0.9242097, y = −0.5974290, y = 0.7211134, y = 0.9665063.
46
Hence the two curves have four intersection points, with these y-coordinates.
By the symmetry in f and g, the same values are also the possible x-
coordinates. By trying out (numerically) all 16 conceivable x-y-combinations,
we find that the following four pairs are the real solutions to our equations:
(x, y) = (−0.9242, 0.7211), (x, y) = (0.7211, −0.9242),

(x, y) = (−0.5974, 0.9665), (x, y) = (0.9665, −0.5974).
Example. (Implicitization of a rational curve in the plane)

Consider a plane curve which is given to us parametrically:

a(t) c(t) 2
C = , ∈R : t∈R ,
b(t) d(t)
where a(t), b(t), c(t), d(t) are polynomials in Q [t]. The goal is to find the
unique irreducible polynomial f ∈ Q [x, y] which vanishes on C. We may
find f by the general Gröbner basis approach explained in (Cox, Little &
O’Shea). It is more efficient, however, to use the following formula:

f (x, y) = Rest b(t) · x − a(t), d(t) · y − c(t) .
Here is an explicit example in maple of a rational curve of degree six:

> a := t^3 - 1: b := t^2 - 5:
> c := t^4 - 3: d := t^3 - 7:
> f := resultant(b*x-a,d*y-c,t);
2 2 2
f := 26 - 16 x - 162 y + 18 x y + 36 x - 704 x y + 324 y
2 2 2 3
+ 378 x y + 870 x y - 226 x y
3 4 3 2 4 3
+ 440 x - 484 x + 758 x y - 308 x y - 540 x y
2 3 3 3 4 2 3
- 450 x y - 76 x y + 76 x y - 216 y
Example. (Computation with algebraic numbers)

Let α and β be algebraic numbers over Q . They are represented by their
47
minimal polynomials f, g ∈ Q [x]. These are the unique (up to scaling)
irreducible polynomials satisfying f (α) = 0 and g(β) = 0. Our problem
is to find the minimal polynomials p and q for their sum α + β and their
product α·β respectively. The answer is given by the following two formulas

p(z) = Resx f (x), g(z − x) and q(z) = Resx f (x), g(z/x) · xdeg(g) .
It is easy to check the identities p(α + β) = 0 and q(α · β) = 0. As an

example we consider two algebraic numbers given in terms of radicals:
√ q √ q √
5 3 3
α = 2, β = −7/2 − 1/18 3981 + −7/2 + 1/18 3981.
Their minimal polynomials are α5 −2 and β 3 +β +7 respectively. Using the

above formulas, we find that the minimal polynomial for their sum α + β is
p(z) = z 15 + 5 z 13 + 35 z 12 + 10 z 11 + 134 z 10 + 500 z 9 + 240 z 8 + 2735 z 7

+3530z 6 + 1273z 5 − 6355z 4 + 12695z 3 + 1320z 2 + 22405z + 16167,
and the minimal polynomial for their product α · β equals
q(z) = z 15 − 70 z 10 + 984 z 5 + 134456.
4.2 The classical multivariate resultant

Consider a system of n homogeneous polynomials in n indeterminates
f1 (x1 , . . . , xn ) = ··· = fn (x1 , . . . , xn ) = 0. (25)
We assume that the i-th equation is homogeneous of degree di > 0, that is,
X (i)
fi = cj1 ,...,jn xj11 · · · xjnn ,
j1 +···+jn =di

where the sum is over all n+ddii −1 monomials of degree di in x1 , . . . , xn . Note
that the zero vector (0, 0, . . . , 0) is always a solution of (25). Our question is
to determine under which condition there is a non-zero solution. As a simple
example we consider the case of linear equations (n = 3, d1 = d2 = d3 = 1):
f1 = c1100 x1 + c1010 x2 + c1001 x3 = 0
f2 = c2100 x1 + c2010 x2 + c2001 x3 = 0
f3 = c3100 x1 + c3010 x2 + c3001 x3 = 0.
48
This system a non-zero solution if and only if the determinant is zero:
 1 
c100 c1010 c1001

det c2100 c2010 c2001  = 0.
c3100 c3010 c3001
(i)
Returning to the general case, we regard each coefficient cj1 ,...,jn of each
polynomial fi as an unknown, and we write Z[c] for the ring of polynomials
with integer coefficients
Pn n+d in these
variables. The total number of variables in
i −1
Z[c] equals N = i=1 di
. For instance, the 3 × 3-determinant in the
example above may be regarded as a cubic polynomial in Z[c]. The following
theorem characterizes the classical multivariate resultant Res = Resd1 ···dn .
Theorem 30. Fix positive degrees d1 , . . . , dn . There exists a unique (up to

sign) irreducible polynomial Res ∈ Z[c] which has the following properties:
(i)
(a) Res vanishes under specializing the c j1 ...,jn to rational numbers if and
only if the corresponding equations (25) have a non-zero solution in C n .
(b) Res is irreducible, even when regarded as a polynomial in C [c].
(c) Res is homogeneous of degree d 1 · · · di−1 · di+1 · · · dn in the coefficients

(i)
(ca : |a| = di ) of the polynomial fi , for each fixed i ∈ {1, . . . , n}.
We sketch a proof of Theorem 30. It uses results from algebraic geometry.

Proof. The elements of C [u] are polynomial functions on the affine space
C N . We regard x = (x1 , . . . , xn ) as homogeneous coordinates for the complex
projective space P n−1 . Thus (u, x) are the coordinates on the product variety
C N ×P n−1 . Let I denote the subvariety of C N ×P n−1 defined by the equations
X (i)
cj1 ,...,jn xj11 · · · xjnn = 0 for i = 1, 2, . . . , n.
j1 +···+jn =di
Note that I is defined over Q . Consider the projection φ : C N × P n−1 →

P n−1 , (u, x) 7→ x. Then φ(I) = P n−1 . The preimage φ−1 (x) of any point
x ∈ P n−1 can be identified with the set { u ∈ C N : (u, x) ∈ I }. This
is a linear subspace of codimension n in C N . To this situation we apply
(Shafarevich 1977, §I.6.3, Theorem 8) to conclude that the variety I is a
closed and irreducible of codimension n in C N ×P n−1 . Hence dim(I) = N −1.
49
Consider the projection ψ : C N × P n−1 → C N , (u, x) 7→ u. It follows
from the Main Theorem of Elimination Theory, (Eisenbud 1994, Theorem
14.1) that ψ(I) is an irreducible subvariety of C N which is defined over Q
as well. Every point c in C N can be identified with a particular polynomial
system f1 = · · · = fn = 0. That system has a nonzero root if and only if c
lies in the subvariety ψ(I). For every such c we have
dim(ψ(I)) ≤ dim(I) = N − 1 ≤ dim(ψ−1 (c)) + dim(ψ(I))
The two inequalities in follow respectively from parts (2) and (1) of Theorem
7 in Section I.6.3 of (Shafarevich 1977). We now choose c = (f1 , . . . , fn ) as
follows. Let f1 , . . . , fn−1 be any equations as in (25) which have only finitely
many zeros in P n−1 . Then choose fn which vanishes at exactly one of these
zeros, say y ∈ P n−1 . Hence ψ−1 (c) = {(c, y)}, a zero-dimensional variety.
For this particular choice of c both inequalities hold with equality. This
implies dim(ψ(I)) = N − 1.
We have shown that the image of I under ψ is an irreducible hypersurface
in C N , which is defined over Z. Hence there exists an irreducible polynomial
Res ∈ Z[c], unique up to sign, whose zero set equals ψ(I). By construction,
this polynomial Res(u) satisfies properties (a) and (b) of Theorem 30.
Part (c) of the theorem is derived from Bézout’s Theorem.
Various determinantal formulas are known for the multivariate resultant.
The most useful formulas are mixtures of Bézout matrices and Sylvester ma-
trices like the expression in the middle of (23). Exact division-free formulas
of this kind are available for n ≤ 4. We discuss such formulas for n = 3.
The first non-trivial case is d1 = d2 = d3 = 2. Here the problem is to
eliminate two variables x and y from a system of three quadratic forms
F = a0 x2 + a1 xy + a2 y 2 + a3 xz + a4 yz + a5 z 2 ,
G = b0 x2 + b1 xy + b2 y 2 + b3 xz + b4 yz + b5 z 2 ,
H = c0 x2 + c1 xy + c2 y 2 + c3 xz + c4 yz + c5 z 2 .
To do this, we first compute their Jacobian determinant

 
∂F/∂x ∂F/∂y ∂F/∂z
J := det  ∂G/∂x ∂G/∂y ∂G/∂z  .
∂H/∂x ∂H/∂y ∂H/∂z
50
We next compute the partial derivatives of J. They are quadratic as well:
∂J/∂x = u0 x2 + u1 xy + u2 y 2 + u3xz + u4 yz + u5 z 2 ,
∂J/∂y = v0 x2 + v1 xy + v2 y 2 + v3 xz + v4 yz + v5 z 2 ,
∂J/∂z = w0 x2 + w1 xy + w2 y 2 + w3 xz + w4 yz + w5 z 2 .
Each coefficient ui , vj or wk is a polynomial of degree 3 in the original co-

efficients ai , bj , ck . The resultant of F, G and H coincides with the following
6 × 6-determinant:
 
a0 b0 c0 u0 v0 w0
 a1 b1 c1 u1 v1 w1 
 
 a2 b2 c2 u2 v2 w2 
Res2,2,2 = det    (26)
a b c u v w 
 3 3 3 3 3 3 
 a4 b4 c4 u4 v4 w4 
a5 b5 c5 u5 v5 w5
This is a homogeneous polynomial of degree 12 in the 18 unknowns a0 , a1 , . . . ,

a5 , b0 , b1 , . . . , b5 , c0 , c1 , . . . , c5 . The full expansion of Res has 21, 894 terms.
In a typical application of Res2,2,2 , the coefficients ai , bj , ck will themselves
be polynomials in another variable t. Then the resultant is a polynomial in
t which represents the projection of the desired solutions onto the t-axis.
Consider now the more general case of three ternary forms f, g, h of the
same degree d = d1 = d2 = d3 . The following determinantal formula for their
resultant was known to Sylvester. We know from part (c) of Theorem 30 that
Resd,d,d is a homogeneous polynomial of degree 3d2 in 3 d+2 2
unknowns. We
shall express Resd,d,d as the determinant of a square matrix of size

2d d d d d+1
= + + + .
2 2 2 2 2

We write Se = Q [x, y, z]e for the e+2 2
-dimensional vector space of ternary
forms of degree e. Our matrix represents a linear map of the following form
Sd−2 ⊗ Sd−2 ⊗ Sd−2 ⊗ Sd−1 → S2d−2

( a, b, c, u ) 7→ a · f + b · g + c · h + δ(u),
where δ is a linear map from Sd−1 to S2d−2 to be described next. We shall

define δ by specifying its image on any monomial xi y j z k with i+j+k = d−1.
51
For any such monomial, we chose arbitrary representations
f = xi+1 · Px + y j+1 · Py + z k+1 · Pz

g = xi+1 · Qx + y j+1 · Qy + z k+1 · Qz
h = xi+1 · Rx + y j+1 · Ry + z k+1 · Rz ,
where Px , Qx , Rx are homogeneous of degree d − i − 1, Py , Qy , Ry are ho-

mogeneous of degree d − j − 1, and Pz , Qz , Rz are homogeneous of degree
d − k − 1. Then we define
 
P x P y P z
δ xi y j z k = det  Qx Q Qz  .
Rx Ry Rz
Note that this determinant is indeed a ternary form of degree
(d − i − 1) + (d − j − 1) + (d − k − 1) = 3d − 3 − (i + j + k) = 2d − 2.
DISCUSS THE CASE d = 3 IN DETAIL WITH MAPLE CODE
4.3 The sparse resultant

Most systems of polynomial equations encountered in real world applications
are sparse in the sense that only few monomials appear with non-zero coeffi-
cient. The classical multivariate resultant is not well suited to this situation.
As an example consider the following system of three quadratic equations:
f = a0 x + a1 y + a2 xy, g = b0 + b1 xy + b2 y 2 , h = c0 + c1 xy + c2 x2 .
If we substitute the coefficients of f, g and h into the resultant Res2,2,2 in

(26) then the resulting expression vanishes identically. This is consistent
with Theorem 30 because the corresponding homogeneous equations
F = a0 xz +a1 yz + a2 xy, G = b0 z 2 +b1 xy +b2 y 2 , H = c0 z 2 +c1 xy + c2 y 2
52
always have the common root (1 : 0 : 0), regardless of what the coefficients
ai , bj , ck are. In other words, the three given quadrics always intersect in the
projective plane. But they generally do not intersect in the affine plane C 2 .
In order for this to happen, the following polynomial in the coefficients must
vanish:
a21 b2 b21 c20 c1 − 2a21 b2 b1 b0 c0 c21 + a21 b2 b20 c31 − a21 b31 c20 c2 + 2a21 b21 b0 c0 c1 c2
−a21 b1 b20 c21 c2 − 2a1 a0 b22 b1 c20 c1 + 2a1 a0 b22 b0 c0 c21 + 2a1 a0 b2 b21 c20 c2
−2a1 a0 b2 b20 c21 c2 − 2a1 a0 b21 b0 c0 c22 + 2a1 a0 b1 b20 c1 c22 + a20 b32 c20 c1 − a20 b22 b1 c20 c2
−2a20 b22 b0 c0 c1 c2 + 2a20 b2 b1 b0 c0 c22 + a20 b2 b20 c1 c22 − a20 b1 b20 c32 − a22 b22 b1 c30
+a22 b22 b0 c20 c1 + 2a22 b2 b1 b0 c20 c2 − 2a22 b2 b20 c0 c1 c2 − a22 b1 b20 c0 c22 + a22 b30 c1 c22 .
The expression is the sparse resultant of f, g and h. This resultant is custom-

tailored to the specific monomials appearing in the given input equations.
In this section we introduce the set-up of “sparse elimination theory”.
In particular, we present the precise definition of the sparse resultant. Let
A0 , A1, . . . , An be finite subsets of Zn. Set mi := #(Ai ). Consider a system
of n + 1 Laurent polynomials in n variables x = (x1 , . . . , xn ) of the form
X
fi (x) = cia xa (i = 0, 1, . . . , n).
a∈Ai
Here xa = xa11 · · · xann for a = (a1 , . . . , an ) ∈ Zn. We say that Ai is the

support of the polynomial fi (x). In the example above, n = 2, m1 = m2 =
m3 = 3, A0 = { (1, 0), (0, 1), (1, 1) } and A1 = A2 = { (0, 0), (1, 1), P(0, 2)}.
For any subset J ⊆ {0, . . . , n} consider the affine lattice spanned by j∈J Aj ,
X X
LJ := λj a(j) | a(j) ∈ Aj , λj ∈ Z for all j ∈ J and λj = 1 .
j∈J j∈J
We may assume that L{0,1,...,n} = Zn. Let rank(J) denote the rank of the
lattice LJ . A subcollection of supports {Ai }i∈I is said to be essential if
rank(I) = #(I) − 1 and rank(J) ≥ #(J) for each proper subset J of I.
The vector of all coefficients cia appearing in f0 , f1 , . . . , fn represents a point

in the product of complex projective spaces P m0 −1 × · · · × P mn −1 . Let Z
denote the subset of those systems (4.3) which have a solution x in (C ∗ )n ,
where C ∗ := C \{0}. Let Z̄ be the closure of Z in P m0 −1 × · · · × P mn −1 .
53
Lemma 31. The projective variety Z̄ is irreducible and defined over Q .
It is possible that Z̄ is not a hypersurface but has codimension ≥ 2. This
is where the condition of the supports being essential comes in. It is known
that the codimension of Z̄ in P m0 −1 × · · · × P mn −1 equals the maximum of
the numbers #(I) − rank(I), where I runs over all subsets of {0, 1, . . . , n}.
We now define the sparse resultant Res. If codim(Z̄) = 1 then Res is the
unique (up to sign) irreducible polynomial in Z[. . . , cia , . . .] which vanishes on
the hypersurface Z̄. If codim(Z̄) ≥ 2 then Res is defined to be the constant
1. We have the following result. Theorem 32 is a generalization of Theorem
30, in the same way that Bernstein’s Theorem generalizes Bézout’s Theorem.
Theorem 32. Suppose that {A0 , A1, . . . , An } is essential, and let Qi denote
the convex hull of Ai . For all i ∈ {0, . . . , n} the degree of Res in the i-th group
of variables {cia , a ∈ Ai } is a positive integer, equal to the mixed volume
X X
M(Q0 , . . . , Qi−1 , Qi+1 . . . , Qn ) = (−1)#(J) · vol Qj .
J⊆{0,...,i−1,i+1...,n} j∈J
We refer to (Gel’fand, Kapranov & Zelevinsky 1994) and (Pedersen &

Sturmfels 1993) for proofs and details. The latter paper contains the follow-
ing combinatorial criterion for the existence of a non-trivial sparse resultant.
Note that, if each Ai is n-dimensional, then I = {0, 1, . . . , n} is essential.
Corollary 33. The variety Z̄ has codimension 1 if and only if there exists
a unique subset {Ai}i∈I which is essential. In this case the sparse resultant
Res coincides with the sparse resultant of the equations {fi : i ∈ I}.
Example. For the linear system

c00 x + c01 y = c10 x + c11 y = c20 x + c21 y + c22 = 0.
the variety Z̄ has codimension 1 in the coefficient space P 1 × P 1 × P 2 . The
unique essential subset consists of the first two equations. Hence the sparse
resultant of this system is not the 3 × 3-determinant (which would be re-
ducible). The sparse resultant is the 2 × 2-determinant Res = c00 c11 −
c10 c01 .
We illustrate Theorem 32 for our little system {f, g, h}. Clearly, the triple
of support sets {A1 , A2, A3 } is essential, since all three Newton polygons
Qi = conv(Ai ) are triangles. The mixed volume of two polygons equals
M(Qi , Qj ) = area(Qi + Qj ) − area(Qi ) − area(Qj ).
54
In our example the triangles Q2 and Q3 coincide, and we have
area(Q1 ) = 1/2, area(Q2 ) = 1, area(Q1 + Q2 ) = 9/2, area(Q2 + Q3 ) = 4.
This implies
M(Q1 , Q2 ) = M(Q1 , Q3 ) = 3 and M(Q2 , Q3 ) = 2.4.6
This explains why the sparse resultant (4.2) is quadratic in (a0 , a1 , a2 ) and
homogeneous of degree 3 in (b0 , b1 , b2 ) and in (c0 , c1 , c2 ) respectively.
One of the central problems in elimination theory is to find “nice” deter-
minantal formulas for resultants. The best one can hope for is a Sylvester-type
formula, that is, a square matrix whose non-zero entries are the coefficients
of the given equation and whose determinant equals precisely the resultant.
The archetypical example of such a formula is (24). Sylvester-type formulas
do not exist in general, even for the classical multivariate resultant.
If a Sylvester-type formula is not available or too hard to find, the next
best thing is to construct a “reasonably small” square matrix whose deter-
minant is a non-zero multiple of the resultant under consideration. For the
sparse resultant such a construction was given in (Canny and Emiris 1995)
and (Sturmfels 1994). A Canny-Emiris matrix for our example is
y2 y3 xy 3 y4 xy 4 xy 2 x2 y 2 x2 y 3 y xy
 
yf a1 0 0 0 0 a2 0 0 0 a0
2
y f 0  a1 a2 0 0 a0 0 0 0 0 

xy 2 f 
0 0 a1 0 0 0 a0 a2 0 0 

y g 
2
 b0 0 b1 b2 0 0 0 0 0 0 

2 
xy g  0 0 0 0 b2 b0 0 b1 0 0 

yg  0 b2 0 0 0 b1 0 0 b0 0 

xyg  0 0 b2 0 0 0 b1 0 0 b0 

xy 2 h 
0 0 0 0 c2 c0 0 c1 0 0 

yh  0 c2 0 0 0 c1 0 0 c0 0 
xyh 0 0 c2 0 0 0 c1 0 0 c0
The determinant of this matrix equals a1 b2 times the sparse resultant (4.2).
The structure of this 10 × 10-matrix can be understood as follows. Form
the product f gh and expand it into monomials in x and y. A certain com-
binatorial rule selects 10 out of the 15 monomials appearing in f gh. The
columns are indexed by these 10 monomials. Suppose the i-th column is
55
indexed by the monomial xj y k , Next there is a second combinatorial rule
which selects a monomial multiple of one of the input equations f , g or h
such that this multiple contains xi y j in its expansion. The i-th row is in-
dexed by that polynomial. Finally the (i, j)-entry contains the coefficient
of the j-th column monomial in the i-th row polynomial. This construction
implies that the matrix has non-zero entries along the main diagonal. The
two combinatorial rules mentioned in the previous paragraph are based on
the geometric construction of a mixed subdivision of the Newton polytypes.
The main difficulty overcome by the Canny-Emiris formula is this: If
one sets up a matrix like the one above just by “playing around” then most
likely its determinant will vanish (try it), unless there is a good reason why it
shouldn’t vanish. Now the key idea is this: a big unknown polynomial (such
as Res) will be non-zero if one can ensure that its initial monomial (with
respect to some term order) is non-zero.
Consider the lexicographic term order induced by the variable ordering
a1 > a0 > a2 > b2 > b1 > b0 > c0 > c1 > c2 . The 24 monomials of Res
are listed in this order above. Consider all 10 ! permutations contribute a
(possible) non-zero term to the expansion of the determinant of the Canny-
Emiris matrix. There will undoubtedly be some cancellation. However, the
unique largest monomial (in the above term order) appears only once, namely,
on the main diagonal. This guarantees that the determinant is a non-zero
polynomial. Note that the product of the diagonal elements in equals a1 b2
times the underlined leading monomial.
An explicit combinatorial construction for all possible initial monomials
(with respect to any term order) of the sparse resultant is given in (Sturmfels
1993). It is shown there that for any such initial monomial there exists a
Canny-Emiris matrix which has that monomial on its main diagonal.
4.4 The unmixed sparse resultant

In this section we consider the important special case when the given Laurent
polynomials f0 , f1 , . . . , fn all have the same support:
A := A 0 = A1 = · · · = A n ⊂ Zn.
In this situation, the sparse resultant Res is the Chow form of the projec-
tive toric variety
XA which parametrically given by the vector of monomials
x : a ∈ A . Chow forms play a central role in elimination theory, and it
a
56
is of great importance to find determinantal formulas for Chow forms of fre-
quently appearing projective varieties. Significant progress in this direction
has been made in the recent work of Eisenbud, Floystad, Schreyer on exte-
rior syzygies and the Bernstein-Bernstein-Beilinson correspondence. Khetan
(2002) has applied these techniques to give an explicit determinantal for-
mula of mixed Bézout-Sylvester type for the Chow form of any toric surface
or toric threefold. This provides a very practical technique for eliminating
two variables from three equations or three variables from four equations.
We describe Khetan’s formula for an example. Consider the following
unmixed system of three equations in two unknowns:
f = a1 + a2 x + a3 y + a4 xy + a5 x2 y + a6 xy 2 ,
g = b1 + b2 x + b3 y + b4 xy + b5 x2 y + b6 xy 2 ,
h = c1 + c2 x + c3 y + c4 xy + c5 x2 y + c6 xy 2 .
The common Newton polygon of f, g and h is a pentagon of normalized area

5. It defines a toric surface of degree 5 in projective 5-space. The sparse
unmixed resultant Res = Res(f, g, h) is the Chow form of this surface. It
can be written as a homogeneous polynomial of degree 5 in the brackets
 
ai aj ak
[ijk] =  bi bj bk  .
ci cj ck
Hence Res is a polynomial of degree 15 in the 18 unknowns a1 , a2 , . . . , c6 . It

equals the determinant of the following 9 × 9-matrix
 
0 −[124] 0 [234] [235] [236] a1 b1 c1
 0 −[125] 0 0 0 0 a2 b2 c2 
 
 0 −[126] 0 − [146] −[156]−[345] −[346] a3 b3 c3 
 
 0 0 0 [345]−[156]−[246] − [256] −[356] a b c 
 4 4 4 
 0 0 0 − [256] 0 0 a5 b5 c5 
0 0 0 − [356] − [456] 0 a6 b6 c6
4.5 Exercises
PUT YOUR FAVORITE EXERCISES ABOUT RESULTANTS HERE
57

1 Polynomials in One Variable: 1.1 The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra

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1 Polynomials in One Variable

The study of systems of polynomial equations in many variables requires a

p(x) = ad xd + ad−1 xd−1 + · · · + a2 x2 + a1 x + a0 . (1)

1.1 The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra

Theorem 1. (Fundamental Theorem of Algebra) The polynomial p(x)

> solve(a2 * x^2 + a1 * x + a0, x );

> lprint( solve(a3 * x^3 + a2 * x^2 + a1 * x + a0, x )[1] );

> f := a4 * x^4 + a3 * x^3 + a2 * x^2 + a1 * x + a0 :

This sextic is the determinant of the following 7 × 7-matrix divided by a4:

> f := x^6 + 3*x^5 + 6*x^4 + 7*x^3 + 5*x^2 + 2*x+1:

"6T11", {"[2^3]S(3)", "2 wr S(3)", "2S_4(6)"}, "-", 48,

{"(2 4 6)(1 3 5)", "(1 5)(2 4)", "(3 6)"}

1/2 2/3 1/2 1/2 1/3 1/2

1.2 Numerical Root Finding

-1.02820-.0686972 I, -1.02820+.0686972 I, -1.01767-.0190398 I,

Timesx : V → V , f (x) 7→ x · f (x). (2)

The companion matrix is the d×d-matrix which represents the endomorphism

Proof. Suppose that f (x) is a polynomial in C [x] whose image in V ⊗ C =

Corollary 3. The following statements about p(x) ∈ Q [x] are equivalent:

• The polynomial p(x) is square-free, i.e., it has no multiple roots in C .

• The companion matrix Timesx is diagonalizable.

• The ideal hp(x)i is a radical ideal in Q [x].

q(x) = gcd(p(x), p0 (x)) (4)

Thus the three conditions in the Corollary are equivalent to q(x) = 1. In

1.3 Real Roots

Another important classical result on real roots is the following:

1.4 Puiseux series

p(t; x) = ad (t)xd + ad−1 (t)xd−1 + · · · + a2 (t)x2 + a1 (t)x + a0 (t). (6)

Theorem 7. (Puiseux’s Theorem) The polynomial p(t; x) has d roots,

> with(algcurves): p := x^2 + x - t^3;

> with(algcurves): q := x^2 + t^4 * x - t:

ai (t) = ci · tAi + higher terms in t.

x(t) = γ · tτ + higher terms in t.

We wish to characterize the possible pairs of numbers (τ, γ) in Q × C which

cd · tAd +dτ + cd−1 · tAd−1 +(d−1)τ + · · · + c1 · tA1 +τ + c0 · tA0 = 0. (7)

This equation imposes the following piecewise-linear condition on τ :

min{Ad + dτ, Ad−1 + (d − 1)τ, A2 + 2τ, A1 + τ, A0 } is attained twice. (8)

min{ 0 + 2τ, 0 + τ, 3 } is attained twice.

The sentence means the following disjunction of linear inequality systems:

This disjunction is equivalent to

1.5 Hypergeometric series

X(a0 , ta1 , t2 a2 , . . . , td−1 ad−1 , td ad ) 1

We next differentiate ∂X/∂aj with respect to the indeterminate ai :

> simplify(diff(diff(X,a0),a2) - diff(diff(X,a1),a1));

What do you get when you now say series(X,a0,4) or series(X,a2,4) ?

a0 X (−1)2i+3j+4k+5l (2i+3j +4k+5l)! ai+2j+3k+4l+1 ai aj ak al

Each coefficient appearing in one of these series is integral. Therefore these

We abbreviate the derivation ∂a∂ i by the symbol ∂i and we consider the

(a) Which polynomial has largest discriminant ?

(6) Give a necessary and sufficient condition for quartic equation

to have exactly two real roots. We expect a condition which is a Boolean

(7) Describe an algebraic algorithm for deciding whether a polynomial p(x)

What is the coefficient of tn in each of the five series ?

∂ 2 X/∂a0 ∂a2 = ∂ 2 X/∂a21

For which values of α and β do (non-zero) polynomial solutions exist ?

2.1 Computing standard monomials and the radical

I = h (x − y)3 − z 2 , (z − x)3 − y 2, (y − z)3 − x2 ) i. (14)

The following Macaulay2 computation verifies that I is zero-dimensional:

o7 = | 1 x x2 xy xyz xz xz2 y y2 yz yz2 z z2 z3 |

> f := x^6 + 3x^5 + 6x^4 + 7x^3 + 5x^2 + 2*x+1:

> GB := [z^2+1/5x-1/5y+2/25, y^2-1/5x+1/5z+2/25,

> B := [1, x, y, z, xz, yz]:

> GB := [z^2+1/5x-1/5y+2/25, y^2-1/5x+1/5z+2/25,