We develop a collection of numerical algorithms which connect ideas from polyhedral geometry and algebraic geometry. The first algorithm we develop functions as a numerical oracle for the Newton polytope of a hypersurface and is based on ideas of Hauenstein and Sottile. Additionally, we construct a numerical tropical membership algorithm which uses the former algorithm as a subroutine. Based on recent results of Esterov, we give an algorithm which recursively solves a sparse polynomial system when the support of that system is either lacunary or triangular. Prior to explaining these results, we give necessary background on polytopes, algebraic geometry, monodromy groups of branched covers, and numerical algebraic geometry.
We present our implementation of an algorithm which functions as a numerical oracle for the Newton polytope of a hypersurface in the Macaulay2 package NumericalNP.m2. We propose a tropical membership test, relying on this algorithm, for higher codimension varieties based on ideas from Hept and Theobald. To showcase this software, we investigate the Newton polytope of both a hypersurface coming from algebraic vision and the Luroth invariant.
The bifurcation sets of polynomial functions have been studied by many mathematicians from various points of view. In particular, Némethi and Zaharia described them in terms of Newton polytopes. In this paper, we will show analogous results for rational functions.
We study normal directions to facets of the Newton polytope of the discriminant of the Laurent polynomial system via the tropical approach. We use the combinatorial construction proposed by Dickenstein, Feichtner and Sturmfels for the tropicalization of algebraic varieties admitting a parametrization by a linear map followed by a monomial map.
A Newton-Okounkov polytope of a complete flag variety can be turned into a convex geometric model for Schubert calculus. Namely, we can represent Schubert cycles by linear combinations of faces of the polytope so that the intersection product of cycles corresponds to the set-theoretic intersection of faces (whenever the latter are transverse). We explain the general framework and survey particular realizations of this approach in types A, B and C.
For classical groups SL(n), SO(n) and Sp(2n), we define uniformly geometric valuations on the corresponding complete flag varieties. The valuation in every type comes from a natural coordinate system on the open Schubert cell and is combinatorially related to the Gelfand-Zetlin pattern in the same type. In types A and C, we identify the corresponding Newton-Okounkov polytopes with the Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytopes. In types B and D, we compute low-dimensional examples and formulate open questions.
We compute the Newton--Okounkov bodies of line bundles on a Bott--Samelson resolution of the complete flag variety of $GL_n$ for a geometric valuation coming from a flag of translated Schubert subvarieties. The Bott--Samelson resolution corresponds to the decomposition $(s_1)(s_2s_1)(s_3s_2s_1)(\ldots)(s_{n-1}\ldots s_1)$ of the longest element in the Weyl group, and the Schubert subvarieties correspond to the terminal subwords in this decomposition. We prove that the resulting Newton--Okounkov polytopes for semiample line bundles satisfy the additivity property with respect to the Minkowski s…
In this survey I summarize the constructions of toric degenerations obtained from valuations and Gröbner theory and describe in which sense they are equivalent. I show how adapted bases can be used to generalize the classical Newton polytope to what is called a $\mathbb B$-Newton polytope. The $\mathbb B$-Newton polytope determines the Newton--Okounkov polytopes of all Khovanskii-finite valuations sharing the adapted standard monomial basis $\mathbb B$.
The Newton polytope related to a ``minimal" counterexample to the Jacobian conjecture is introduced and described. This description allows to obtain a sharper estimate for the geometric degree of the polynomial mapping given by a Jacobian pair and to give a new proof of the Abhyankar's two characteristic pair case.
In this paper we compute the Newton polytope $\mathcal M_A$ of the Morse discriminant in the space of univariate polynomials with the given support set $A.$ Namely, we establish a surjection between the set of all combinatorial types of Morse univariate tropical polynomials and the vertices of $\mathcal M_A.$
Marked chain-order polytopes are convex polytopes constructed from a marked poset, which give a discrete family relating a marked order polytope with a marked chain polytope. In this paper, we consider the Gelfand-Tsetlin poset of type A, and realize the associated marked chain-order polytopes as Newton-Okounkov bodies of the flag variety. Our realization connects previous realizations of Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes and Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytopes as Newton-Okounkov bodies in a uniform way. As an application, we prove that the flag variety degenerates into the irreducible normal …
The purpose of this note is to give an exposition of some interesting combinatorics and convex geometry concepts that appear in algebraic geometry in relation to counting the number of solutions of a system of polynomial equations in several variables over complex numbers. The exposition is aimed for a general audience in mathematics and we hope to be accessible to undergraduate as well as advance high school students. The topics discussed belong to relatively new, and closely related branches of algebraic geometry which are usually referred to as tropical geometry and toric geometry. These ar…
Let $X$ be the family of hypersurfaces in the odd-dimensional torus ${\mathbb T}^{2n+1}$ defined by a Laurent polynomial $f$ with fixed exponents and variable coefficients. We show that if $nΔ$, the dilation of the Newton polytope $Δ$ of $f$ by the factor $n$, contains no interior lattice points, then the Picard-Fuchs equation of $W_{2n}H^{2n}_{\rm DR}(X)$ has a full set of algebraic solutions (where $W_\bullet$ denotes the weight filtration on de Rham cohomology). We also describe a procedure for finding solutions of these Picard-Fuchs equations.
It is known that the homogeneous coordinate ring of a Grassmannian has a cluster structure, which is induced from the combinatorial structure of a plabic graph. A plabic graph is a certain bipartite graph described on the disk, and there is a family of plabic graphs giving a cluster structure of the same Grassmannian. Such plabic graphs are related by the operation called square move which can be considered as the mutation in cluster theory. By using a plabic graph, we also obtain the Newton--Okounkov polytope which gives a toric degeneration of the Grassmannian. The purposes of this article i…
The main result of this note is that the toric degenerations of flag varieties associated to string polytopes and certain Bott-Samelson resolutions of flag varieties fit into a commutative diagram which gives a resolution of singularities of singular toric varieties corresponding to string polytopes. Our main tool is a result of Anderson which shows that the toric degenerations arising from Newton-Okounkov bodies are functorial in an appropriate sense. We also use results of Fujita which show that Newton-Okounkov bodies of Bott-Samelson varieties with respect to a certain valuation $ν_{max}$ c…
Results of Koebe (1936), Schramm (1992), and Springborn (2005) yield realizations of $3$-polytopes with edges tangent to the unit sphere. Here we study the algebraic degrees of such realizations. This initiates the research on constrained realization spaces of polytopes.
We determine the $166\,104$ extremal monomials of the discriminant of a quaternary cubic form. These are in bijection with $D$-equivalence classes of regular triangulations of the $3$-dilated tetrahedron. We describe how to compute these triangulations and their $D$-equivalence classes in order to arrive at our main result. The computation poses several challenges, such as dealing with the sheer amount of triangulations effectively, as well as devising a suitably fast algorithm for computation of a $D$-equivalence class.
The Gelfand-Tsetlin and the Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytopes for the Grassmannians are defined, from the perspective of representation theory, to parametrize certain bases for highest weight irreducible modules. These polytopes are Newton-Okounkov bodies for the Grassmannian and, in particular, the GT-polytope is an example of a string polytope. The polytopes admit a combinatorial description as the Stanley's order and chain polytopes of a certain poset, as shown by Ardila, Bliem and Salaza. We prove that these polytopes occur among matching field polytopes. Moreover, we show that t…
A classical result of Schubert calculus is an inductive description of Schubert cycles using divided difference (or push-pull) operators in Chow rings. We define convex geometric analogs of push-pull operators and describe their applications to the theory of Newton-Okounkov convex bodies. Convex geometric push-pull operators yield an inductive construction of Newton-Okounkov polytopes of Bott-Samelson varieties. In particular, we construct a Minkowski sum of Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytopes using convex geometric push-pull operators in type A.
Assume that the valuation semigroup $Γ(λ)$ of an arbitrary partial flag variety corresponding to the line bundle $\mathcal L_λ$ constructed via a full-rank valuation is finitely generated and saturated. We use Ehrhart theory to prove that the associated Newton-Okounkov body, which happens to be a rational, convex polytope, contains exactly one lattice point in its interior if and only if $\mathcal L_λ$ is the anticanonical line bundle. Furthermore we use this unique lattice point to construct the dual polytope of the Newton-Okounkov body and prove that this dual is a lattice polytope using a r…
Let $\K=\C$, or $\R$, and $S_f$ be the set of points in $\K^n$ at which a polynomial map $f:\K^n\rightarrow\K^n$ is non-proper. Jelonek proved that $S_f$ is a semi-algebraic set that is ruled by polynomial curves, with $\dim S_f\leq n-1$, and provided a method to compute $S_f$ for $\K = \C$. However, such methods do not exist for $\K = \R$. In this paper, we establish a straightforward description of $S_f$ for a large family of non-proper maps $f$ using the Newton polytopes of the polynomials appearing in $f$. Thus resulting in a new method for computing $S_f$ that works for $\K=\R$, and highl…
We initiate a study of the Euclidean Distance Degree in the context of sparse polynomials. Specifically, we consider a hypersurface f=0 defined by a polynomial f that is general given its support, such that the support contains the origin. We show that the Euclidean Distance Degree of f=0 equals the mixed volume of the Newton polytopes of the associated Lagrange multiplier equations. We discuss the implication of our result for computational complexity and give a formula for the Euclidean distance degree when the Newton polytope is a rectangular parallelepiped.
