Residues and the combinatorial Nullstellensatz (Q2330051)

\textit{N. Alon} [Comb. Probab. Comput. 8, No. 1--2, 7--29 (1999; Zbl 0920.05026)] published a Combinatorial Nullstellensatz. With this algebraic result, Alon was able to produce results in combinatorics and discrete geometry. More recently, several authors gave versions of this result that they expressed in the form of a certain formula which we omit here. Pioneered by Fedor Petrov, this formula has been applied in the following general way: The goal is to express a combinatorial statement in the form that a certain polynomial \(f\) of appropriate degree attains a nonzero value on the product \(A_1 \times \cdots \times A_n\) (where \(A_1,\dots,A_n\) are arbitrary subsets of a field \(\mathbb{F}\) with \(\vert A_i\vert = c_i +1\)). The formula in the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz involves these numbers \(c_i\), and under suitable circumstances one concludes that there exists a system of representatives \(\alpha_i \in A_i\) such that \(f(\alpha_1, \alpha_2,\dots, \alpha_n) \neq 0\). The main goal of this paper is to view the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz as a multi-dimensional residue formula. The author then describes other situations where this point of view may be useful. Finally, the author shows a relation between the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz and the standard Cayley-Bacharach theorem.