Toric intersection theory for affine root counting

Given any polynomial system with fixed monomial term structure, we give explicit formulae for the generic number of roots with specified coordinate vanishing restrictions. For the case of affine space minus an arbitrary union of coordinate hyperplanes, these formulae are also the tightest possible upper bounds on the number of isolated roots. We also characterize, in terms of sparse resultants, precisely when these upper bounds are attained. Finally, we reformulate and extend some of the prior combinatorial results of the author on which subsets of coefficients must be chosen generically for our formulae to be exact. Our underlying framework provides a new toric variety setting for computational intersection theory in affine space minus an arbitrary union of coordinate hyperplanes. We thus show that, at least for root counting, it is better to work in a naturally associated toric compactification instead of always resorting to products of projective spaces. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.