This volume consolidates selected articles from the 2016 Apprenticeship Program at the Fields Institute, part of the larger program on Combinatorial Algebraic Geometry that ran from July through December of 2016. Written primarily by junior mathematicians, the articles cover a range of topics in combinatorial algebraic geometry including curves, surfaces, Grassmannians, convexity, abelian varieties, and moduli spaces. This book bridges the gap between graduate courses and cutting-edge research by connecting historical sources, computation, explicit examples, and new results.

In 2002, an introductory workshop was held at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley to survey some of the many directions of the commutative algebra field. Six principal speakers each gave three lectures, accompanied by a help session, describing the interaction of commutative algebra with other areas of mathematics for a broad audience of graduate students and researchers. This book is based on those lectures, together with papers from contributing researchers. David Benson and Srikanth Iyengar present an introduction to the uses and concepts of commutative algebra in the cohomology of groups. Mark Haiman considers the commutative algebra of n points in the plane. Ezra Miller presents an introduction to the Hilbert scheme of points to complement Professor Haiman's paper. Further contributors include David Eisenbud and Jessica Sidman; Melvin Hochster; Graham Leuschke; Rob Lazarsfeld and Manuel Blickle; Bernard Teissier; and Ana Bravo.

Systems of polynomial equations arise throughout mathematics, science, and engineering. Algebraic geometry provides powerful theoretical techniques for studying the qualitative and quantitative features of their solution sets. Re cently developed algorithms have made theoretical aspects of the subject accessible to a broad range of mathematicians and scientists. The algorith mic approach to the subject has two principal aims: developing new tools for research within mathematics, and providing new tools for modeling and solv ing problems that arise in the sciences and engineering. A healthy synergy emerges, as new theorems yield new algorithms and emerging applications lead to new theoretical questions. This book presents algorithmic tools for algebraic geometry and experi mental applications of them. It also introduces a software system in which the tools have been implemented and with which the experiments can be carried out. Macaulay 2 is a computer algebra system devoted to supporting research in algebraic geometry, commutative algebra, and their applications. The reader of this book will encounter Macaulay 2 in the context of concrete applications and practical computations in algebraic geometry. The expositions of the algorithmic tools presented here are designed to serve as a useful guide for those wishing to bring such tools to bear on their own problems. A wide range of mathematical scientists should find these expositions valuable. This includes both the users of other programs similar to Macaulay 2 (for example, Singular and CoCoA) and those who are not interested in explicit machine computations at all."

The theory of Groebner bases is a main tool for dealing with rings of differential operators. This book reexamines the concept of Groebner bases from the point of view of geometric deformations. The algorithmic methods introduced in this book are particularly useful for studying the systems of multidimensional hypergeometric PDE's introduced by Gelfand, Kapranov, and Zelevinsky. A number of original research results are contained in the book, and many open problems are raised for future research in this rapidly growing area of computational mathematics.

How does an algebraic geometer studying secant varieties further the understanding of hypothesis tests in statistics? Why would a statistician working on factor analysis raise open problems about determinantal varieties? Connections of this type are at the heart of the new field of "algebraic statistics." In this field, mathematicians and statisticians come together to solve statistical inference problems using concepts from algebraic geometry as well as related computational and combinatorial techniques. The goal of these lectures is to introduce newcomers from the different camps to algebraic statistics. The introduction will be centered around the following three observations: many important statistical models correspond to algebraic or semi-algebraic sets of parameters; the geometry of these parameter spaces determines the behaviour of widely used statistical inference procedures; computational algebraic geometry can be used to study parameter spaces and other features of statistical models.

J. Kung and G.-C. Rota, in their 1984 paper, write: Like the Arabian phoenix rising out of its ashes, the theory of invariants, pronounced dead at the turn of the century, is once again at the forefront of mathematics . The book of Sturmfels is both an easy-to-read textbook for invariant theory and a challenging research monograph that introduces a new approach to the algorithmic side of invariant theory. The Groebner bases method is the main tool by which the central problems in invariant theory become amenable to algorithmic solutions. Students will find the book an easy introduction to this classical and new area of mathematics. Researchers in mathematics, symbolic computation, and computer science will get access to a wealth of research ideas, hints for applications, outlines and details of algorithms, worked out examples, and research problems."

Recent developments are covered

Contains over 100 figures and 250 exercises

Includes complete proofs

Recent developments are covered

Contains over 100 figures and 250 exercises

Includes complete proofs

In the summer of 1897, David Hilbert (1862-1943) gave an introductory course in Invariant Theory at the University of Gottingen. This book is an English translation of the handwritten notes taken from this course by Hilbert's student Sophus Marxen. At that time his research in the subject had been completed, and his famous finiteness theorem had been proved and published in two papers that changed the course of invariant theory dramatically and that laid the foundation for modern commutative algebra. Thus, these lectures take into account both the old approach of his predecessors and his new ideas. This bridge from nineteenth to twentieth century mathematics makes these lecture notes a special and fascinating account of invariant theory. Hilbert's course was given at a level accessible to graduate students in mathematics, requiring only a familiarity with linear algebra and the basics of ring and group theory. The text will be useful as a self-contained introduction to invariant theory. But it will also be invaluable as a historical source for anyone interested in the foundations of twentieth-century mathematics.

This book presents algorithmic tools for algebraic geometry and experimental applications of them. It also introduces a software system in which the tools have been implemented and with which the experiments can be carried out. Macaulay 2 is a computer algebra system devoted to supporting research in algebraic geometry, commutative algebra, and their applications. The reader of this book will encounter Macaulay 2 in the context of concrete applications and practical computations in algebraic geometry. The expositions of the algorithmic tools presented here are designed to serve as a useful guide for those wishing to bring such tools to bear on their own problems. These expositions will be valuable to both the users of other programs similar to Macaulay 2 (for example, Singular and CoCoA) and those who are not interested in explicit machine computations at all. The first part of the book is primarily concerned with introducing Macaulay2, whereas the second part emphasizes the mathematics.

In recent years, new algorithms for dealing with rings of differential operators have been discovered and implemented. A main tool is the theory of Gröbner bases, which is reexamined here from the point of view of geometric deformations. Perturbation techniques have a long tradition in analysis; Gröbner deformations of left ideals in the Weyl algebra are the algebraic analogue to classical perturbation techniques. The algorithmic methods introduced here are particularly useful for studying the systems of multidimensional hypergeometric PDEs introduced by Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky. The Gröbner deformation of these GKZ hypergeometric systems reduces problems concerning hypergeometric functions to questions about commutative monomial ideals, and leads to an unexpected interplay between analysis and combinatorics. This book contains a number of original research results on holonomic systems and hypergeometric functions, and raises many open problems for future research in this area.

Oriented matroids are a very natural mathematical concept which presents itself in many different guises and which has connections and applications to many different areas. These include discrete and computational geometry, combinatorics, convexity, topology, algebraic geometry, operations research, computer science and theoretical chemistry. This is the second edition of the first comprehensive, accessible account of the subject. It is intended for a diverse audience: graduate students who wish to learn the subject from scratch; researchers in the various fields of application who want to concentrate on certain aspects of the theory; specialists who need a thorough reference work; and others at academic points in between. A list of exercises and open problems ends each chapter. For the second edition, the authors have expanded the bibliography greatly to ensure that it remains comprehensive and up-to-date, and they have also added an appendix surveying research since the work was first published.

Nonlinear algebra provides modern mathematical tools to address challenges arising in the sciences and engineering. It is useful everywhere, where polynomials appear: in particular, data and computational sciences, statistics, physics, optimization. The book offers an invitation to this broad and fast-developing area. It is not an extensive encyclopedia of known results, but rather a first introduction to the subject, allowing the reader to enter into more advanced topics. It was designed as the next step after linear algebra and well before abstract algebraic geometry. The book presents both classical topics--like the Nullstellensatz and primary decomposition--and more modern ones--like tropical geometry and semidefinite programming. The focus lies on interactions and applications. Each of the thirteen chapters introduces fundamental concepts. The book may be used for a one-semester course, and the over 200 exercises will help the readers to deepen their understanding of the subject.

Computational synthetic geometry deals with methods for realizing abstract geometric objects in concrete vector spaces. This research monograph considers a large class of problems from convexity and discrete geometry including constructing convex polytopes from simplicial complexes, vector geometries from incidence structures and hyperplane arrangements from oriented matroids. It turns out that algorithms for these constructions exist if and only if arbitrary polynomial equations are decidable with respect to the underlying field. Besides such complexity theorems a variety of symbolic algorithms are discussed, and the methods are applied to obtain new mathematical results on convex polytopes, projective configurations and the combinatorics of Grassmann varieties. Finally algebraic varieties characterizing matroids and oriented matroids are introduced providing a new basis for applying computer algebra methods in this field. The necessary background knowledge is reviewed briefly. The text is accessible to students with graduate level background in mathematics, and will serve professional geometers and computer scientists as an introduction and motivation for further research.

In 2002, an introductory workshop was held at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley to survey some of the many new directions of the commutative algebra field. Six principal speakers each gave three lectures, accompanied by a help session, describing the interaction of commutative algebra with other areas of mathematics for a broad audience of graduate students and researchers. This book is based on those lectures, together with papers from contributing researchers. David Benson and Srikanth Iyengar present an introduction to the uses and concepts of commutative algebra in the cohomology of groups. Mark Haiman considers the commutative algebra of n points in the plane. Ezra Miller presents an introduction to the Hilbert scheme of points to complement Professor Haiman's paper. David Eisenbud and Jessica Sidman give an introduction to the geometry of syzygies, addressing the basic question of relating the geometry of a projective variety with an embedding into projective space to the minimal free resolution of its coordinate ring over the polynomial ring of ambient projective space. Melvin Hochster presents an introduction to the theory of tight closure. to compute it. Rob Lazarsfeld and Manuel Blickle discuss the theory of multiplier ideals and how they can be used in commutative algebra. Bernard Teissier presents ideas related to resolution of singularities, complemented by Ana Bravo's paper on canonical subalgebra bases.

Combinatorics and Algebraic Geometry have enjoyed a fruitful interplay since the nineteenth century. Classical interactions include invariant theory, theta functions and enumerative geometry. The aim of this volume is to introduce recent developments in combinatorial algebraic geometry and to approach algebraic geometry with a view towards applications, such as tensor calculus and algebraic statistics. A common theme is the study of algebraic varieties endowed with a rich combinatorial structure. Relevant techniques include polyhedral geometry, free resolutions, multilinear algebra, projective duality and compactifications.

Tropical geometry is a combinatorial shadow of algebraic geometry, offering new polyhedral tools to compute invariants of algebraic varieties. It is based on tropical algebra, where the sum of two numbers is their minimum and the product is their sum. This turns polynomials into piecewise-linear functions, and their zero sets into polyhedral complexes. These tropical varieties retain a surprising amount of information about their classical counterparts. Tropical geometry is a young subject that has undergone a rapid development since the beginning of the 21st century. While establishing itself as an area in its own right, deep connections have been made to many branches of pure and applied mathematics. This book offers a self-contained introduction to tropical geometry, suitable as a course text for beginning graduate students. Proofs are provided for the main results, such as the Fundamental Theorem and the Structure Theorem. Numerous examples and explicit computations illustrate the main concepts. Each of the six chapters concludes with problems that will help the readers to practice their tropical skills, and to gain access to the research literature.

This book is about the interplay of computational commutative algebra and the theory of convex polytopes. It centers around a special class of ideals in a polynomial ring: the class of toric ideals. They are characterized as those prime ideals that are generated by monomial differences or as the defining ideals of toric varieties (not necessarily normal). The interdisciplinary nature of the study of Grobner bases is reflected by the specific applications appearing in this book. These applications lie in the domains of integer programming and computational statistics. The mathematical tools presented in the volume are drawn from commutative algebra, combinatorics, and polyhedral geometry.