Topology of positive zero sets of bivariate pentanomials

A fundamental problem in many applications is determining the real solutions of a polynomial. In recent years, the A-discriminant variety of Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky has proved to be a valuable tool. Its complement over the real numbers defines regions of coefficient values called chambers. We implement an algorithm in MATLAB that draws A-discriminant curves for families of bivariate pentanomials where the topology of the underlying zero set is constant. Our program graphs the discriminant curve with all of its chambers and automatically computes the topology of all smooth zero set for the given families of bivariate pentanomials. We hope automated topology computation for high degree polynomials will prove useful for the algebraic geometry community.

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