J. Kung and G.-C. Rota, in their 1984 paper, write: "Like the Arabian phoenix rising out of its ashes, the theory of invariants, pronounced dead at the turn of the century, is once again at the forefront of mathematics." The book of Sturmfels is both an easy-to-read textbook for invariant theory and a challenging research monograph that introduces a new approach to the algorithmic side of invariant theory. The Groebner bases method is the main tool by which the central problems in invariant theory become amenable to algorithmic solutions. Students will find the book an easy introduction to this "classical and new" area of mathematics. Researchers in mathematics, symbolic computation, and other computer science will get access to the wealth of research ideas, hints for applications, outlines and details of algorithms, worked out examples, and research problems.

Algorithms in Invariant Theory (Texts and Monographs in Symbolic Computation)

Computers & Technology

Bernd Sturmfels

Computer Science

Springer, Verlag

This book is about the interplay of computational commutative algebra and the theory of convex polytopes. It centers around a special class of ideals in a polynomial ring: the class of toric ideals. They are characterized as those prime ideals that are generated by monomial differences or as the defining ideals of toric varieties (not necessarily normal). The interdisciplinary nature of the study of Gröbner bases is reflected by the specific applications appearing in this book. These applications lie in the domains of integer programming and computational statistics. The mathematical tools presented in the volume are drawn from commutative algebra, combinatorics, and polyhedral geometry.

Grobner Bases and Convex Polytopes (University Lecture Series, No. 8)

Science & Math

Mathematics

American Mathematical Society

A classic problem in mathematics is solving systems of polynomial equations in several unknowns. Today, polynomial models are ubiquitous and widely used across the sciences. They arise in robotics, coding theory, optimization, mathematical biology, computer vision, game theory, statistics, and numerous other areas. 
This book furnishes a bridge across mathematical disciplines and exposes many facets of systems of polynomial equations. It covers a wide spectrum of mathematical techniques and algorithms, both symbolic and numerical. 
The set of solutions to a system of polynomial equations is an algebraic variety--the basic object of algebraic geometry. The algorithmic study of algebraic varieties is the central theme of computational algebraic geometry. Exciting recent developments in computer software for geometric calculations have revolutionized the field. Formerly inaccessible problems are now tractable, providing fertile ground for experimentation and conjecture. 
The first half of the book gives a snapshot of the state of the art of the topic. Familiar themes are covered in the first five chapters, including polynomials in one variable, Gröbner bases of zero-dimensional ideals, Newton polytopes and Bernstein's Theorem, multidimensional resultants, and primary decomposition. 
The second half of the book explores polynomial equations from a variety of novel and unexpected angles. It introduces interdisciplinary connections, discusses highlights of current research, and outlines possible future algorithms. Topics include computation of Nash equilibria in game theory, semidefinite programming and the real Nullstellensatz, the algebraic geometry of statistical models, the piecewise-linear geometry of valuations and amoebas, and the Ehrenpreis-Palamodov theorem on linear partial differential equations with constant coefficients. 
Throughout the text, there are many hands-on examples and exercises, including short but complete sessions in Maple®, MATLAB®, Macaulay 2, Singular, PHCpack, CoCoA, and SOSTools. These examples will be particularly useful for readers with no background in algebraic geometry or commutative algebra. Within minutes, readers can learn how to type in polynomial equations and actually see some meaningful results on their computer screens. 
Prerequisites include basic abstract and computational algebra. The book is designed as a text for a graduate course in computational algebra.

Solving Systems of Polynomial Equations (CBMS Regional Conference Series in Mathematics)

Invitation to Nonlinear Algebra (Graduate Studies in Mathematics, 211)

Nonlinear algebra provides modern mathematical tools to address challenges arising in the sciences and engineering. It is useful everywhere, where polynomials appear: in particular, data and computational sciences, statistics, physics, optimization. The book offers an invitation to this broad and fast-developing area. It is not an extensive encyclopedia of known results, but rather a first introduction to the subject, allowing the reader to enter into more advanced topics. It was designed as the next step after linear algebra and well before abstract algebraic geometry. The book presents both classical topics--like the Nullstellensatz and primary decomposition--and more modern ones--like tropical geometry and semidefinite programming. The focus lies on interactions and applications. Each of the thirteen chapters introduces fundamental concepts. The book may be used for a one-semester course, and the over 200 exercises will help the readers to deepen their understanding of the subject.

Mateusz Michałek

Tropical geometry is a combinatorial shadow of algebraic geometry, offering new polyhedral tools to compute invariants of algebraic varieties. It is based on tropical algebra, where the sum of two numbers is their minimum and the product is their sum. This turns polynomials into piecewise-linear functions, and their zero sets into polyhedral complexes. These tropical varieties retain a surprising amount of information about their classical counterparts. Tropical geometry is a young subject that has undergone a rapid development since the beginning of the 21st century. While establishing itself as an area in its own right, deep connections have been made to many branches of pure and applied mathematics. This book offers a self-contained introduction to tropical geometry, suitable as a course text for beginning graduate students. Proofs are provided for the main results, such as the Fundamental Theorem and the Structure Theorem. Numerous examples and explicit computations illustrate the main concepts. Each of the six chapters concludes with problems that will help the readers to practice their tropical skills, and to gain access to the research literature. This wonderful book will appeal to students and researchers of all stripes: it begins at an undergraduate level and ends with deep connections to toric varieties, compactifications, and degenerations. In between, the authors provide the first complete proofs in book form of many fundamental results in the subject. The pages are sprinkled with illuminating examples, applications, and exercises, and the writing is lucid and meticulous throughout. It is that rare kind of book which will be used equally as an introductory text by students and as a reference for experts. ―Matt Baker, Georgia Institute of Technology Tropical geometry is an exciting new field, which requires tools from various parts of mathematics and has connections with many areas. A short definition is given by Maclagan and Sturmfels: “Tropical geometry is a marriage between algebraic and polyhedral geometry”. This wonderful book is a pleasant and rewarding journey through different landscapes, inviting the readers from a day at a beach to the hills of modern algebraic geometry. The authors present building blocks, examples and exercises as well as recent results in tropical geometry, with ingredients from algebra, combinatorics, symbolic computation, polyhedral geometry and algebraic geometry. The volume will appeal both to beginning graduate students willing to enter the field and to researchers, including experts. ―Alicia Dickenstein, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Introduction to Tropical Geometry (Graduate Studies in Mathematics, 161)

Diane Maclagan

Algorithms in Invariant Theory (Monographs in Symbolic Computation)

This book presents algorithmic tools for algebraic geometry, with experimental applications. It also introduces Macaulay 2, a computer algebra system supporting research in algebraic geometry, commutative algebra, and their applications. The algorithmic tools presented here are designed to serve readers wishing to bring such tools to bear on their own problems. The first part of the book covers Macaulay 2 using concrete applications; the second emphasizes details of the mathematics.

Computations in Algebraic Geometry with Macaulay 2

David Eisenbud

Daniel R. Grayson

Michael Stillman

Springer

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Books by Bernd Sturmfels