Mellin Transforms of Multivariate Rational Functions

This paper deals with Mellin transforms of rational functions g/f in several variables. We prove that the polar set of such a Mellin transform consists of finitely many families of parallel hyperplanes, with all planes in each such family being integral translates of a specific facial hyperplane of the Newton polytope of the denominator f. The Mellin transform is naturally related to the so-called coamoeba $\mathcal{A}'_{f}:=\mathrm{Arg}(Z_{f})$ , where Z _f is the zero locus of f and Arg denotes the mapping that takes each coordinate to its argument. In fact, each connected component of the complement of the coamoeba $\mathcal{A}'_{f}$ gives rise to a different Mellin transform. The dependence of the Mellin transform on the coefficients of f, and the relation to the theory of A-hypergeometric functions is also discussed in the paper.