Introduction to Gröbner bases, TCD 2017/18

Summary of classes

Lecture      Topics covered Lecture notes/slides Homeworks/Tutorials/Solutions
1 (15/01) Introduction. Overview of the module, history of Gröbner bases. Examples of systems of polynomial equations in various research areas. Online interface to Magma, and some first computations.
2 (16/01) First steps: monomials, polynomials. Two problems of basic commutative algebra: ideal membership and description of the quotient ring. Monomial orderings. Examples of monomial orderings: GLEX and LEX. Leading monomials, leading terms, leading coefficients. The space of leading terms.
3 (19/01) No lecture on this day.
4 (22/01) The space of leading terms is an ideal. Definition of a Gröbner basis. Examples. A Gröbner basis of an ideal generates that ideal. Gröbner bases and solutions to the two basic problems of commutative algebra.
5 (23/01) Minimal Gröbner bases. Reduced Gröbner bases. Every ideal has a reduced Gröbner basis. Dickson's lemma. The reduced Gröbner basis of every ideal of the polynomial ring in n variables is finite. (Strong form of the Hilbert's Basis Theorem; Noetherianity of polynomial rings.)
6 (26/01) S-polynomials. The Diamond Lemma for commutative polynomials (statement and proof). [HW1 (PDF)]
7 (29/01) Buchberger's algorithm. Example. Termination of the algorithm (using the ACC version of Noetherianity). Remarks on the occasional double-exponential 'explosion' of Gröbner bases.
8 (30/01) Optimisation of Buchberger's algorithm. Co-prime leading monomials create a redundant S-polynomial. The Triangle Lemma. Examples.
9 (02/02) System of polynomial equations. Hilbert's Nullstellensatz (statement; proof over complex numbers, or any uncountable algebraically closed field). Gröbner bases and solutions of polynomial equations: Shape Lemma (statement).
10 (05/02) Finiteness of the solution set for a system of polynomial equations and the dimension of the quotient ring by the ideal generated by equations. Shape Lemma (proof). First steps in elimination theory: elimination ideals of an ideal and their Gröbner bases for the lexicographic order. Example of the equations xy-1 and xz-1. [HW1 solutions (PDF)]
11 (06/02) Elimination theory continued. Slogan: "Gröbner bases compute all elimination ideals in one go". Extension theorem. Statement and sketch of the proof. Elimination theory of the 19th century: the Sylvester matrix of two univariate polynomials, and its relationship to classifying common factors of those polynomials. [HW2 (PDF)]
12 (09/02) Resultants and their properties. End of proof of Extension theorem: impossibility of the non-extendable case.
13 (12/02) Two examples: equation for the parametric curve x=2t-4t3, y=t2-3t4 and the surjectivity of parametrisation in the complex and real case, Lagrange multipliers for the distance between an ellipse and a hyperbola.
14 (13/02) Noncommutative polynomials. Some warnings on what noncommutativity brings (non-Noetherianity; even principal ideals are complicated). Monomial orderings. Definition of a Gröbner basis of a two-sided ideal. First properties of Gröbner bases. Small common multiples. Definition of an S-polynomial for a small common multiple.
15 (16/02) Examples of S-polynomials. The Diamond Lemma for noncommutative polynomials.
16 (19/02) Reduced Gröbner bases. Noncommutative Buchberger's "algorithm". Examples. Applications in group theory.
17 (20/02) Statement and proof of the Poincaré-Birkhoff-Witt theorem. [HW3 (PDF)] [HW2 solutions (PDF)]
18 (23/02) Computing the number of normal monomials. Examples. Graph of normal monomials.
Reading week, no classes
19 (05/03) Graph of normal monomials. Paths in that graph and counting normal monomials. Counting number of paths in a directed graph, and application of Cayley-Hamilton theorem.
20 (06/03) Linear recurrence for the numbers of normal monomials, and rationality of the corresponding power series. Example of an ideal that has an infinite Gröbner basis for every monomial ordering.
21 (09/03) Example of an ideal that has infinitely many ideals of leading terms for various monomial orderings.
22 (12/03) The set of all total orders on a set S as a topological space. For a countable set, that topology is induced by a metric.
23 (13/03) The set of all total orders on a countable set S is a compact topological space. The set of monomial orderings is a closed subset of the set of total orders. Equivalent definition of a monomial ordering: the property 1≤m for all m implies the well-order property. [HW4 (PDF)] [HW3 solutions (PDF)]
24 (16/03) Every ideal in the commutative polynomial ring has a finite universal Gröbner basis. An uncountable family of monomial orderings. Classification of monomial orderings in the commutative case (statement).
25 (19/03) Saint Patrick's day observed: public holiday, no lecture
26 (20/03) No lecture on this day.
27 (23/03) Ordered fields. Examples and non-examples. Non-archimedean ordering on the field of rational functions with coefficients in the ordered field. Classification of monomial orderings in the commutative case (beginning of proof).
28 (26/03) Classification of monomial orderings in the commutative case (end of proof). Revision of the module.
29 (27/03) Revision of the module. An example for the noncommutative Buchberger algorithm and the graph of normal monomials: the ideal (yz-x2, zx-y2, xy-z2) in F[x,y,z]. Noncommutative triangle lemma (reference: Prop. 2.4.3.2 in [BD]). [HW4 solutions (PDF)]
30 (30/03) Good Friday: public holiday, no lecture

About this module

This module is intended as an introduction to an important computational method of algebra, Gröbner bases (for 'systems of equations' in a reasonably wide sense). This method, implicit in works of various mathematicians for a long time (since at least 1900), has only been made into a general theory as recently as in 1965. It can be viewed as a generalisation of both long division and Gaussian elimination (of unknowns) from linear equations), leading to efficient methods of solving systems of polynomial equations, and hence applicable in a range of subjects across both pure mathematics and "real life" applications like robotics and image processing. The module will set out theoretical foundations for this theory, provide the students with examples to explore, and outline some applications of Gröbner bases in natural sciences.

Syllabus

  • Gröbner bases and elimination in the commutative case: long division, Gauss-Jordan elimination, Buchberger's algorithm. Speeding up the algorithm: "Triangle lemma".
  • Using Gröbner bases for solving systems of arbitrary polynomial equations. "Shape lemma."
  • Dickson's lemma. Finiteness, universal Gröbner bases. Classification of monomial orders.
  • Noncommutative associative algebras. Growth. Hilbert series. Examples.
  • Gröbner bases for associative algebras. Diamond lemma. Examples. Exotic monomial orders. Criteria of termination in the non-commutative case.
  • Applications of commutative and noncommutative Gröbner bases.

Textbooks

The main recommended textbooks are:
  • [BD] Murray Bremner and Vladimir Dotsenko. Algebraic Operads: An Algorithmic Companion, final draft of the book currently available via this link.
  • [CLO] David Cox, John Little, and Don O'Shea, Ideals, Varieties, and Algorithms. 3rd edition, Springer, 2007. See also various notes, lists of typos, and links to computer packages on the homepage of David Cox.
  • [St1] Bernd Sturmfels, Algorithms in Invariant Theory. Springer, 1993. (Applications.)
  • [St2] Bernd Sturmfels, Gröbner Bases and Convex Polytopes.. AMS University Lecture Series, Volume 8. AMS, 1996. (Applications.)

Assessment

There will be several home assignments (roughly every 2-3 weeks) that contribute 20% of your final mark. The rest of the mark (80%) comes from the final exam.

Disclaimer

The person who is solely responsible for the choice of content on this page is Vladimir Dotsenko. Any views expressed here do not necessarily represent the official views of Trinity College Dublin.