A characteristic set method for ordinary difference polynomial systems (Q1006653)

The authors establish a characteristic set method for nonlinear ordinary difference polynomial systems. They show that this method can be used to solve some important problems in difference algebra. They also prove several basic properties for difference ascending chains, including a necessary and sufficient condition for an ascending chain to be the characteristic set of its saturation ideal and a necessary and sufficient condition for an ascending chain to be the characteristic set of a reflexive prime ideal. By employing these properties, the authors propose an algorithm to decompose the zero set of a finite set of difference polynomials into the union of zero sets of certain ascending chains. This decomposition algorithm is implemented and use to solve the perfect ideal membership problem, and to prove certain difference identities automatically. Several examples of the zero decomposition algorithm are given.