Effective Nullstellensatz for arbitrary ideals

Let f _i be polynomials in n variables without a common zero. Hilbert’s Nullstellensatz says that there are polynomials g _i such that ∑g _i f _i =1. The effective versions of this result bound the degrees of the g _i in terms of the degrees of the f _j . The aim of this paper is to generalize this to the case when the f _i are replaced by arbitrary ideals. Applications to the Bézout theorem, to Łojasiewicz–type inequalities and to deformation theory are also discussed. Received August 24, 1998 / final version received June 21, 1999     

The p-rank strata of the moduli space of hyperelliptic curves

We prove results about the intersection of the p-rank strata and the boundary of the moduli space of hyperelliptic curves in characteristic p?3. This yields a strong technique that allows us to analyze the stratum of hyperelliptic curves of genus g and p-rank f. Using this, we prove that the endomorphism ring of the Jacobian of a generic hyperelliptic curve of genus g and p-rank f is isomorphic to Z if g?4. Furthermore, we prove that the Z/?-monodromy of every irreducible component of is the symplectic group Sp2g(Z/?) if g?3, and ?≠p is an odd prime (with mild hypotheses on ? when f=0). These results yield numerous applications about the generic behavior of hyperelliptic curves of given genus and p-rank over finite fields, including applications about Newton polygons, absolutely simple Jacobians, class groups and zeta functions.     

On k -diameter of k -connected graphs

Let G be a k-connected simple graph with order n. The k-diameter, combining connectivity with diameter, of G is the minimum integer d _k (G) for which between any two vertices in G there are at least k internally vertex-disjoint paths of length at most d _k (G). For a fixed positive integer d, some conditions to insure d _k (G)⩽d are given in this paper. In particular, if d⩾3 and the sum of degrees of any s (s=2 or 3) nonadjacent vertices is at least n+(s−1)k+1−d, then d _k (G)⩽d. Furthermore, these conditions are sharp and the upper bound d of k-diameter is best possible. Supported by NNSF of China (19971086).     

Maximal ideals of regulous functions are not finitely generated

We prove that every maximal ideal in the ring of k-regulous functions, $k\in \mathbb{N}$, on a smooth real affine algebraic variety of dimension $d\ge 2$ is not finitely generated.     

Places of algebraic function fields in arbitrary characteristic

We consider the Zariski space of all places of an algebraic function field F|K of arbitrary characteristic and investigate its structure by means of its patch topology. We show that certain sets of places with nice properties (e.g., prime divisors, places of maximal rank, zero-dimensional discrete places) lie dense in this topology. Further, we give several equivalent characterizations of fields that are large, in the sense of F. Pop's Annals paper Embedding problems over large fields. We also study the question whether a field K is existentially closed in an extension field L if L admits a K-rational place. In the appendix, we prove the fact that the Zariski space with the Zariski topology is quasi-compact and that it is a spectral space.     

Impossibility of extending Pólya’s theorem to “forms” with arbitrary real exponents

Pólya proved that if a form (homogeneous polynomial) with real coefficients is positive on the nonnegative orthant (except at the origin), then it is the quotient of two real forms with no negative coefficients. While Pólya’s theorem extends, easily, from ordinary real forms to “generalized” real forms with arbitrary rational exponents, we show that it does not extend to generalized real forms with arbitrary real (possibly irrational) exponents.     

Representations of positive polynomials on noncompact semialgebraic sets via KKT ideals

This paper studies the representation of a positive polynomial f(x) on a noncompact semialgebraic set S={x∈Rⁿ:g₁(x)≥0,…,g_s(x)≥0} modulo its KKT (Karush-Kuhn-Tucker) ideal. Under the assumption that the minimum value of f(x) on S is attained at some KKT point, we show that f(x) can be represented as sum of squares (SOS) of polynomials modulo the KKT ideal if f(x)>0 on S; furthermore, when the KKT ideal is radical, we argue that f(x) can be represented as a sum of squares (SOS) of polynomials modulo the KKT ideal if f(x)≥0 on S. This is a generalization of results in [J. Nie, J. Demmel, B. Sturmfels, Minimizing polynomials via sum of squares over the gradient ideal, Mathematical Programming (in press)], which discusses the SOS representations of nonnegative polynomials over gradient ideals.     

Topological differential fields

We consider first-order theories of topological fields admitting a model-completion and their expansion to differential fields (requiring no interaction between the derivation and the other primitives of the language). We give a criterion under which the expansion still admits a model-completion which we axiomatize. It generalizes previous results due to M. Singer for ordered differential fields and of C. Michaux for valued differential fields. As a corollary, we show a transfer result for the NIP property. We also give a geometrical axiomatization of that model-completion. Then, for certain differential valued fields, we extend the positive answer of Hilbert’s seventeenth problem and we prove an Ax-Kochen-Ershov theorem. Similarly, we consider first-order theories of topological fields admitting a model-companion and their expansion to differential fields, and under a similar criterion as before, we show that the expansion still admits a model-companion. This last result can be compared with those of M. Tressl: on one hand we are only dealing with a single derivation whereas he is dealing with several, on the other hand we are not restricting ourselves to definable expansions of the ring language, taking advantage of our topological context. We apply our results to fields endowed with several valuations (respectively several orders).     

Embedding ordered fields in formal power series fields

In the paper it is shown how an embedding of an ordered field F into a formal power series field can be extended canonically to an embedding of any simple extension F(y) of F. Properties of the extended embedding are studied in detail. Several applications are given.     

Families of low dimensional determinantal schemes

A scheme X⊂Pⁿ of codimension c is called standard determinantal if its homogeneous saturated ideal can be generated by the t×t minors of a homogeneous t×(t+c−1) matrix (f_ij). Given integers a₀≤a₁≤?≤a_t+c−2 and b₁≤?≤b_t, we denote by the stratum of standard determinantal schemes where f_ij are homogeneous polynomials of degrees a_j−b_i and is the Hilbert scheme (if n−c>0, resp. the postulation Hilbert scheme if n−c=0).Focusing mainly on zero and one dimensional determinantal schemes we determine the codimension of in and we show that is generically smooth along under certain conditions. For zero dimensional schemes (only) we find a counterexample to the conjectured value of appearing in Kleppe and Miró-Roig (2005) [25].     

The role of the cotangent bundle in resolving ideals of fat points in the plane

We study the connection between the generation of a fat point scheme supported at general points in and the behaviour of the cotangent bundle with respect to some rational curves particularly relevant for the scheme. We put forward two conjectures, giving examples and partial results in support of them.     

Ideals of varieties parameterized by certain symmetric tensors

The ideal of a Segre variety P^n₁×?×P^n_t?P^{(n₁+1)?(n_t+1)−1} is generated by the 2-minors of a generic hypermatrix of indeterminates (see [H.T. Hà, Box-shaped matrices and the defining ideal of certain blowup surface, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 167 (2-3) (2002) 203-224. MR1874542 (2002h:13020)] and [R. Grone, Decomposable tensors as a quadratic variety, Proc. Amer. Math. 43 (2) (1977) 227-230. MR0472853 (57 #12542)]). We extend this result to the case of Segre-Veronese varieties. The main tool is the concept of “weak generic hypermatrix” which allows us to treat also the case of projection of Veronese surfaces from a set of general points and of Veronese varieties from a Cohen-Macaulay subvariety of codimension 2.     

On the critical ideals of graphs

We introduce some determinantal ideals of the generalized Laplacian matrix associated to a digraph G, that we call critical ideals of G. Critical ideals generalize the critical group and the characteristic polynomials of the adjacency and Laplacian matrices of a digraph. The main results of this article are the determination of some minimal generator sets and the reduced Gröbner basis for the critical ideals of the complete graphs, the cycles and the paths. Also, we establish a bound between the number of trivial critical ideals and the stability and clique numbers of a graph.     

Minimal generators of toric ideals of graphs

Let IG be the toric ideal of a graph G. We characterize in graph theoretical terms the primitive, the minimal, the indispensable and the fundamental binomials of the toric ideal IG.     

Test ideals of non-principal ideals: Computations,jumping numbers,alterations and division theorems

Given an ideal a⊆R$\mathfrak{a}\subseteq R$ in a (log) Q$\mathbb{Q}$-Gorenstein F  -finite ring of characteristic p>0$p>0$, we study and provide a new perspective on the test ideal τ(R,a^t)$\tau (R,{\mathfrak{a}}^t)$ for a real number t>0$t>0$. Generalizing a number of known results from the principal case, we show how to effectively compute the test ideal and also describe τ(R,a^t)$\tau (R,{\mathfrak{a}}^t)$ using (regular) alterations with a formula analogous to that of multiplier ideals in characteristic zero. We further prove that the F  -jumping numbers of τ(R,a^t)$\tau (R,{\mathfrak{a}}^t)$ as t varies are rational and have no limit points, including the important case where R is a formal power series ring. Additionally, we obtain a global division theorem for test ideals related to results of Ein and Lazarsfeld from characteristic zero, and also recover a new proof of Skoda's theorem for test ideals which directly mimics the proof for multiplier ideals.     

Nonconvergence in the theory of random orders

There are sentences in the first order theory of partial orders for whom the limit probability of the sentence holding for the random partial order of dimension two does not exist. Furthermore there is no decision procedure that distinguishes those sentences which hold almost surely from those which hold almost never.     

Algebraic properties of separated power series

We study the commutative algebra of rings of separated power series over a ring E and that of their extensions: rings of separated (and more specifically convergent) power series from a field K with a separated E-analytic structure. Both of these collections of rings already play an important role in the model theory of non-Archimedean valued fields and we establish their algebraic properties. This will make a study of the analytic geometry over such fields through the classical methods of algebraic geometry possible.