Counting Solutions to Binomial Complete Intersections

We study the problem of counting the total number of affine solutions of a system of n binomials in n variables over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. We show that we may decide in polynomial time if that number is finite. We give a combinatorial formula for computing the total number of affine solutions (with or without multiplicity) from which we deduce that this counting problem is #P-complete. We discuss special cases in which this formula may be computed in polynomial time; in particular, this is true for generic exponent vectors.Comment: Several minor improvements. Final version to appear in the J. of Complexit

Multihomogeneous resultant formulae by means of complexes

We provide conditions and algorithmic tools so as to classify and construct the smallest possible determinantal formulae for multihomogeneous resultants arising from Weyman complexes associated to line bundles in products of projective spaces. We also examine the smallest Sylvester-type matrices, generically of full rank, which yield a multiple of the resultant. We characterize the systems that admit a purely B\'ezout-type matrix and show a bijection of such matrices with the permutations of the variable groups. We conclude with examples showing the hybrid matrices that may be encountered, and illustrations of our Maple implementation. Our approach makes heavy use of the combinatorics of multihomogeneous systems, inspired by and generalizing results by Sturmfels-Zelevinsky, and Weyman-Zelevinsky.Comment: 30 pages. To appear: Journal of Symbolic Computatio

Integrating Singular Functions on the Sphere

We obtain rigorous results concerning the evaluation of integrals on the two sphere using complex methods. It is shown that for regular as well as singular functions which admit poles, the integral can be reduced to the calculation of residues through a limiting procedure.Comment: 15 pages, revte

Additive Edge Labelings

Let G=(V,E) be a graph and d a positive integer. We study the following problem: for which labelings f_E: E \to Z_d is there a labeling f_V:V \to Z_d such that f_E(i,j) = f_V(i) + f_V(j) (mod d), for every edge (i,j) in E? We also explore the connections of the equivalent multiplicative version to toric ideals. We derive a polynomial algorithm to answer these questions and to obtain all possible solutions.Comment: 14 page

Complex-linear invariants of biochemical networks

The nonlinearities found in molecular networks usually prevent mathematical analysis of network behaviour, which has largely been studied by numerical simulation. This can lead to difficult problems of parameter determination. However, molecular networks give rise, through mass-action kinetics, to polynomial dynamical systems, whose steady states are zeros of a set of polynomial equations. These equations may be analysed by algebraic methods, in which parameters are treated as symbolic expressions whose numerical values do not have to be known in advance. For instance, an "invariant" of a network is a polynomial expression on selected state variables that vanishes in any steady state. Invariants have been found that encode key network properties and that discriminate between different network structures. Although invariants may be calculated by computational algebraic methods, such as Gr\"obner bases, these become computationally infeasible for biologically realistic networks. Here, we exploit Chemical Reaction Network Theory (CRNT) to develop an efficient procedure for calculating invariants that are linear combinations of "complexes", or the monomials coming from mass action. We show how this procedure can be used in proving earlier results of Horn and Jackson and of Shinar and Feinberg for networks of deficiency at most one. We then apply our method to enzyme bifunctionality, including the bacterial EnvZ/OmpR osmolarity regulator and the mammalian 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase glycolytic regulator, whose networks have deficiencies up to four. We show that bifunctionality leads to different forms of concentration control that are robust to changes in initial conditions or total amounts. Finally, we outline a systematic procedure for using complex-linear invariants to analyse molecular networks of any deficiency.Comment: 36 pages, 6 figure

Linear Toric Fibrations

These notes are based on three lectures given at the 2013 CIME/CIRM summer school. The purpose of this series of lectures is to introduce the notion of a toric fibration and to give its geometrical and combinatorial characterizations. Polarized toric varieties which are birationally equivalent to projective toric bundles are associated to a class of polytopes called Cayley polytopes. Their geometry and combinatorics have a fruitful interplay leading to fundamental insight in both directions. These notes will illustrate geometrical phenomena, in algebraic geometry and neighboring fields, which are characterized by a Cayley structure. Examples are projective duality of toric varieties and polyhedral adjunction theory

Tropical surface singularities

In this paper, we study tropicalisations of singular surfaces in toric threefolds. We completely classify singular tropical surfaces of maximal-dimensional type, show that they can generically have only finitely many singular points, and describe all possible locations of singular points. More precisely, we show that singular points must be either vertices, or generalized midpoints and baricenters of certain faces of singular tropical surfaces, and, in some cases, there may be additional metric restrictions to faces of singular tropical surfaces.Comment: A gap in the classification was closed. 37 pages, 29 figure

Residues in toric varieties

We study residues on a complete toric variety X, which are defined in terms of the homogeneous coordinate ring of X.We first prove a global transformation law for toric residues. When the fan of the toric variety has a simplicial cone of maximal dimension, we can produce an element with toric residue equal to 1. We also show that in certain situations, the toric residue is an isomorphism on an appropriate graded piece of the quotient ring. When X is simplicial, we prove that the toric residue is a sum of local residues. In the case of equal degrees, we also show how to represent X as a quotient (Y\{0})/C* such that the toric residue becomes the local residue at 0 in Y

Rational hypergeometric functions

Multivariate hypergeometric functions associated with toric varieties were introduced by Gel\u27fand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky. Singularities of such functions are discriminants, that is, divisors projectively dual to torus orbit closures. We show that most of these potential denominators never appear in rational hypergeometric functions. We conjecture that the denominator of any rational hypergeometric function is a product of resultants, that is, a product of special discriminants arising from Cayley configurations. This conjecture is proved for toric hypersurfaces and for toric varieties of dimension at most three. Toric residues are applied to show that every toric resultant appears in the denominator of some rational hypergeometric function

Singular Tropical Hypersurfaces

We study the notion of singular tropical hypersurfaces of any dimension. We characterize the singular points in terms of tropical Euler derivatives and we give an algorithm to compute all singular points. We also describe non-transversal intersection points of planar tropical curves