The Hardness of Polynomial Equation Solving

Elimination theory was at the origin of algebraic geometry in the nineteenth century and now deals with the algorithmic solving of multivariate polynomial equation systems over the complex numbers or, more generally, over an arbitrary algebraically closed field. In this paper we investigate the intrinsic sequential time complexity of universal elimination procedures for arbitrary continuous data structures encoding input and output objects of elimination theory (i.e., polynomial equation systems) and admitting the representation of certain limit objects. Our main result is the following: let there be given such a data structure and together with this data structure a universal elimination algorithm, say P, solving arbitraryparametric polynomial equation systems. Suppose that the algorithm P avoids unnecessary branchings and thatP admits the efficient computation of certain natural limit objects (as, e.g., the Zariski closure of a given constructible algebraic set or the parametric greatest common divisor of two given algebraic families of univariate polynomials). Then P$ cannot be a polynomial time algorithm. The paper contains different variants of this result and discusses their practical implications.