Polynomial ring in the context of Polynomial evaluation

In mathematics, a polynomial is a mathematical expression consisting of indeterminates (also called variables) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and exponentiation to nonnegative integer powers, and has a finite number of terms. An example of a polynomial of a single indeterminate ${\displaystyle x}$ is ${\displaystyle x^{2}-4x+7}$. An example with three indeterminates is ${\displaystyle x^{3}+2xyz^{2}-yz+1}$.

Polynomials appear in many areas of mathematics and science. For example, they are used to form polynomial equations, which encode a wide range of problems, from elementary word problems to complicated scientific problems; they are used to define polynomial functions, which appear in settings ranging from basic chemistry and physics to economics and social science; and they are used in calculus and numerical analysis to approximate other functions. In advanced mathematics, polynomials are used to construct polynomial rings and algebraic varieties, which are central concepts in algebra and algebraic geometry.

In algebraic geometry, an affine variety or affine algebraic variety is a certain kind of algebraic variety that can be described as a subset of an affine space.

More formally, an affine algebraic set is the set of the common zeros over an algebraically closed field k of some family of polynomials in the polynomial ring ${\displaystyle k[x_{1},\ldots ,x_{n}].}$ An affine variety is an affine algebraic set which is not the union of two smaller algebraic sets; algebraically, this means that (the radical of) the ideal generated by the defining polynomials is prime. One-dimensional affine varieties are called affine algebraic curves, while two-dimensional ones are affine algebraic surfaces.

Commutative algebra, first known as ideal theory, is the branch of algebra that studies commutative rings, their ideals, and modules over such rings. Both algebraic geometry and algebraic number theory build on commutative algebra. Prominent examples of commutative rings include polynomial rings; rings of algebraic integers, including the ordinary integers ${\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} }$; and p-adic integers.

Commutative algebra is the main technical tool of algebraic geometry, and many results and concepts of commutative algebra are strongly related with geometrical concepts.

In mathematics, a unique factorization domain (UFD) (also sometimes called a factorial ring following the terminology of Bourbaki) is a ring in which a statement analogous to the fundamental theorem of arithmetic holds. Specifically, a UFD is an integral domain (a nontrivial commutative ring in which the product of any two non-zero elements is non-zero) in which every non-zero non-unit element can be written as a product of irreducible elements, uniquely up to order and units.

Important examples of UFDs are the integers and polynomial rings in one or more variables with coefficients coming from the integers or from a field.

In mathematics, more specifically in category theory, a universal property is a property that characterizes up to an isomorphism the result of some constructions. Thus, universal properties can be used for defining some objects independently from the method chosen for constructing them. For example, the definitions of the integers from the natural numbers, of the rational numbers from the integers, of the real numbers from the rational numbers, and of polynomial rings from the field of their coefficients can all be done in terms of universal properties. In particular, the concept of universal property allows a simple proof that all constructions of real numbers are equivalent: it suffices to prove that they satisfy the same universal property.

Technically, a universal property is defined in terms of categories and functors by means of a universal morphism (see § Formal definition, below). Universal morphisms can also be thought more abstractly as initial or terminal objects of a comma category (see § Connection with comma categories, below).

In mathematics, Hilbert's Nullstellensatz (German for "theorem of zeros", or more literally, "zero-locus-theorem") is a theorem that establishes a fundamental relationship between geometry and algebra. This relationship is the basis of algebraic geometry. It relates algebraic sets to ideals in polynomial rings over algebraically closed fields. This relationship was discovered by David Hilbert, who proved the Nullstellensatz in his second major paper on invariant theory in 1893 (following his seminal 1890 paper in which he proved Hilbert's basis theorem).