A criterion for the primeness of ideals generated by polynomials with separated variables

Proving primeness of an idealI=〈f ₁, …,f _m〉 in a polynomial ringR=KX ₁, …,X _n]ofn indeterminates over an algebraically closed fieldK is a difficult task in general. Although there are straightforward algorithms that decide whetherI is prime or not, they are prohibitively lengthy if the number of indeterminates or the degrees of thef _iare large. In this paper we will give an easy criterion for the primeness ofI if thef _iare polynomials with separated variables, i.e. no mixed monomials occur in thef _i. The work on this paper was done while the author was a MINERVA fellow at Tel Aviv University.