English

Laurent polynomials and Eulerian numbers

Combinatorics 2012-07-25 v2 Commutative Algebra Algebraic Geometry

Abstract

Duistermaat and van der Kallen show that there is no nontrivial complex Laurent polynomial all of whose powers have a zero constant term. Inspired by this, Sturmfels posed two questions: Do the constant terms of a generic Laurent polynomial form a regular sequence? If so, then what is the degree of the associated zero-dimensional ideal? In this note, we prove that the Eulerian numbers provide the answer to the second question. The proof involves reinterpreting the problem in terms of toric geometry.

Cite

@article{arxiv.0908.2609,
  title  = {Laurent polynomials and Eulerian numbers},
  author = {Daniel Erman and Gregory G. Smith and Anthony Várilly-Alvarado},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.2609},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

7 pages; gave a new proof of Lemma 3; made minor corrections and improvements to exposition

R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:36:35.070Z