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As mentioned above, the coefficient ring for a CoCoA polynomial ring
may be:
1. ZZ: (arbitrarily large) integer numbers;
2. QQ: (arbitrarily large) rational numbers;
3. ZZ/(N): (see
CocoaLimits
) integers modulo N,
You may also use
Q and
Z, but from version
4.7.4
QQ and
ZZ are strongly recommended for
compatibility with the forthcoming version 5.
The first two types of coefficients are based on the GNU-gmp library.
When integers modulo N are used, the system checks whether N is a
prime number and, if it is not, a warning message is given. However
non-prime integers are accepted. Hence it is possible to do some work
with polynomials whose coefficients are not in a field, but it is up
to the user to ensure that no illegal operation will be attempted. To
find the upper limit for the characteristic in the third case, see the
field
MaxChar returned by the function
CocoaLimits
;
N <= 32767 is
typical. (Note: 32003 is prime)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Presently the implementation of the Buchberger
algorithm for computing Groebner bases operates correctly only if
polynomials have coefficients in a field. So the high level operations
on ideals and modules (and the polynomial GCD) involving Groebner
bases computations work only if polynomials have coefficients in a
field. Otherwise it is very likely that the user will run into
trouble.
CoeffRing: When creating a new ring, the word
CoeffRing may be
used to refer to the current coefficient ring. Examples below
illustrate its use.
Use R ::= QQ[x,y]; -- coefficient ring is Q
S ::= ZZ/(5)[t]; -- coefficient ring is the field with 5 elements
T ::= ZZ[u,v]; -- A warning is issued if the coefficient ring
-- is not a field.
-- WARNING: Coeffs are not in a field
-- GBasis-related computations could fail to terminate or be wrong
-------------------------------
Use R ::= ZZ/(2)[x,y,z]; CurrentRing(); -- these examples show the usage
-- of "CoeffRing"
ZZ/(2)[x,y,z]
-------------------------------
Use S ::= CoeffRing[a,b]; CurrentRing();
ZZ/(2)[a,b]
-------------------------------
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