A period of a rational integral is the result of integrating, with respect to
one or several variables, a rational function over a closed path. This work
focuses particularly on periods depending on a parameter: in this case the
period under consideration satisfies a linear differential equation, the
Picard-Fuchs equation. I give a reduction algorithm that extends the
Griffiths-Dwork reduction and apply it to the computation of Picard-Fuchs
equations. The resulting algorithm is elementary and has been successfully
applied to problems that were previously out of reach.Comment: To appear in Math. comp. Supplementary material at
http://pierre.lairez.fr/supp/periods