# System of polynomial equations with a known root

I have 5 polynomial equations for 5 variables and I know that the set of roots is finite. All coefficients are integers. Ultimately I'd like to find all roots but finding the Groebner basis is impossible it seems (I tried maple, mathematica, sympy) probably because it takes too long or too much memory. But I found a rather simple root just by looking at the equations :) Now I'd like to use the fact that 1 root is known to somehow reduce the set of polynomials to lower order ones, if possible, in order to simplify the problem. How would I go about this?

• Why do you think you need to find a Groebner basis to find the roots? Dec 11, 2018 at 23:14
• @Somos, Gröbner bases computations is one of the main tools for finding polynomial gcd's and thus solving systems of multivariate polynomial equations. Dec 12, 2018 at 1:27
• "One of" but not the only tool. Have you tried resultants? Also, have you tried to substitute the one known root into the five eqatuions? Dec 12, 2018 at 1:30
• is computing the resultant more efficient (from the computational viewpoint) than computing the Gröbner basis? Dec 12, 2018 at 1:33
• Software you listed is not know for having very good Grobner bases implementations. Dec 12, 2018 at 5:29

If $$p = (a_1,\dotsc,a_n)$$ is a known solution and your system of equations is given by the ideal $$I$$, then a system of equations for all the other solutions is given as follows. Let $$m_p = (x_1-a_1,\dotsc,x_n-a_n)$$ be the maximal ideal corresponding to $$p$$. Then the saturation $$I:m_p^\infty$$ given by $$I:m_p^{\infty} = \{ f : \exists n, f m_p^n \subseteq I \}$$ is an ideal whose solutions (vanishing points) are precisely the solutions of $$I$$ other than $$p$$. This is under the assumption that $$p$$ is an isolated solution of $$I$$, which is the case since you know $$I$$ has finitely many solutions. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_quotient.
The saturation can be computed by Gröbner basis methods. For example, Macaulay2 has a command to compute the saturation. Just a guess here, but my feeling is that the saturation is easier to compute than finding the solutions other than $$p$$; now, whether $$I:m_p^{\infty}$$ is easier to solve, enough to justify that extra saturation computation, is more of a question. It probably depends on your particular ideal.