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# The resultant

For univariate polynomials f, g over a field the following lemma says that it is possible to find polynomials s, t such that sf + tg, deg(s) < deg(g), deg(t) < deg(f ) if and only if gcd(f, g) 1.

Lemma 1   Let f, g [x] be nonzero polynomials over the field k. Then the following statements are equivalent.
• gcd(f, g) 1
• There exist polynomials s, t R[x] {0} such that

 sf + tg  =  0,    deg(s) < deg(g)    and    deg(t) < deg(f ) (24)

Proof. Let h = gcd(f, g). If h 1 then deg(h) 1 and a solution is

 (s, t)  =  (g/h, - f /h) (25)

Conversely, let (s, t) be a solution. Assume that f and g are coprime. Then sf = - tg would imply f | t. This is impossible since t 0 and deg(t) < deg(f ). Hence f and g are not coprime and gcd(f, g) 1 holds.

Remark 7   Given f, g [x] nonzero polynomials of degrees n, m respectively we consider the map

 : (26)

For d {0} we define

 Pd  =  {p [x]  |  deg(p) < d} (27)

with the convention that

 P0  =  {0} (28)

The restriction of to :  Pm×Pn   Pn+m is a linear map between vector spaces of finite dimension.

Proposition 4   Let f, g [x] nonzero polynomials of degrees n, m such that n + m > 0. Then we have:
• gcd(f, g) = 1    is an isomorphism.
• If gcd(f, g) = 1 then the Bézout coefficients (u, v) computed by the Extended Euclidean Algorithm form the unique solution in Pm×Pn of the equation

 (u, v)  =  1 (29)

Proof. From Lemma 1 we deduce that the kernel of is reduced to {0} iff gcd(f, g) = 1. Since both Pm×Pn and Pn+m have dimension n + m this proves the first claim. The second claim is a consequence of the first one.

Remark 8   Let's carry on with f, g nonzero univariate polynomials in x of degrees n, m such that n + m > 0. However let us relax the hypothesis on the coefficient ring by assuming that it is just a commutative ring R with unity. Let us write:

 f  =  fnxn + ... + f0    and    g  =  gmxm + ... + g0 (30)

The natural basis for Pm×Pn consists of the (xi, 0) for 0 i < m followed by the (0, xj) for 0 j < m. On this basis is represented by the following matrix

 (31)

where all entries outside of the parallelograms are equal to zero.

Definition 4   The above square matrix of order n + m is denoted Sylv(f, g) and called the Sylvester matrix of f and g. Its determinant is called the resultant of f and g denoted by res(f, g). We make the following conventions.
• If n = m = 0 (and still nonzero polynomials) we define res(f, g) = 1.
• If f = 0 or f R[x] R then res(f, 0) = res(0, f )= 0.
• If f R {0} then res(f, 0) = res(0, f )= 1.

Proposition 5   Let f, g [x] be nonzero univariate polynomials over a field . Then the following statements are equivalent
1. gcd(f, g) = 1.
2. res(f, g) 0.
3. there do not exist any s, t [x] {0} such that

 sf + tg = 0,  deg(s) < deg(g)    and    deg(t) < deg(f ). (32)

Proof. This follows from Proposition 4 and the fact that res(f, g) is a determinant of the linear map .

Proposition 6   Let f, g R[x] be nonzero univariate polynomials over a UFD R. Then we have

 gcd(f, g) R        res(f, g) 0. (33)

Proof. This follows from the adaptation of the results of Lemma 1 and Proposition 4 to the case where the ground ring is a UFD (and in particular an integral domain) instead of a field.

Proposition 7   Let f, g R[x] be nonzero univariate polynomials over an integral domain R. Then there exist nonzero s, t R[x] such that

 sf + tg = res(f, g),  deg(s) < deg(g)    and    deg(t) < deg(f ). (34)

Proof. Let be the field of fractions of R. If res(f, g) = 0 then we know that there exist s, t [x] {0} such that

 sf + tg = 0,  deg(s) < deg(g)    and    deg(t) < deg(f ). (35)

Then the claim follows by cleaning up the denominators.

If res(f, g) 0 then f and g are coprime in [x]. Then there exists u, v [x] with stated degree bounds such that uf + vg = 1 holds in [x]. Observe that

• The coefficients of u, v are in fact the unique solution of a linear system whose matrix is the Sylvester Sylv(f, g) matrix of f and g.
• These coefficients can be computed by the Cramer's rule.
• Hence each of these coefficients is the quotient of a determinant of a submatrix of Sylv(f, g) by res(f, g).
Then the polynomials s = res(f, gu and t = res(f, gu have coefficients in R and we have the desired relations.

Next: Lucky and unlucky modular reductions Up: Advanced Computer Algebra: The resultant Previous: Relation between gcds in [x]
Marc Moreno Maza
2003-06-06