A faster way to count the solutions of inhomogeneous systems of algebraic equations, with applications to cyclic \(n\)-roots (Q1186712)

Let \(n\geq 2\) be a natural number and call \((z_ 0,z_ 1,\ldots,z_{n- 1})\in\mathbb{C}^ n\) a cyclic \(n\)-root if \[ \begin{cases} \hfill z_ 0+z_ 1+\cdots+z_{n-1} &=0, \\ \hfill z_ 0z_ 1+z_ 1z_ 2+\cdots+z_{n-1}z_ 0 &=0, \\ \hfill z_ 0z_ 1z_ 2+z_ 1z_ 2z_ 3+\cdots+z_{n-1}z_ 0z_ 1 & =0, \\ \hfill &\cdots \\ \hfill z_ 0z_ 1\cdots z_{n-2}+z_ 1z_ 2\cdots z_{n-1}+\cdots+z_{n- 1}z_ 0\cdots z_{n-3} &=0, \\ \hfill z_ 0z_ 1\cdots z_{n-1} &=1. \end{cases} \] The authors use computer algebra to show that for \(n=2,3,5,6,7\) there is only a finite number of cyclic \(n\)-roots and to determine all of them for these values of \(n\). (It is known that there exist infinitely many cyclic \(n\)-roots if \(n\) is not squarefree). They describe a general method to count the solutions of a system of inhomogeneous polynomial equations by making them homogeneous and using the faster algorithms for the homogeneous case.