Applications of Polynomial Systems

Examples in the book include oil wells, HIV infection, phylogenetic models, four-bar mechanisms, border rank, font design, Stewart-Gough platforms, rigidity of edge graphs, Gaussian graphical models, geometric constraint systems, and enzymatic cascades. The reader will encounter geometric objects such as Bézier patches, Cayley-Menger varieties, and toric varieties; and algebraic objects such as resultants, Rees algebras, approximation complexes, matroids, and toric ideals. Two important subthemes that appear in multiple chapters are toric varieties and algebraic statistics. The book also discusses the history of elimination theory, including its near elimination in the middle of the twentieth century.

The main goal is to inspire the reader to learn about the topics covered in the book. With this in mind, the book has an extensive bibliography containing over 350 books and papers.