Amoeba (mathematics)

Consider the function

${\displaystyle \operatorname {Log}$ :{\big (}{\mathbb {C} }\setminus \{0\}{\big )}^{n}\to \mathbb {R} ^{n}}

defined on the set of all n-tuples ${\displaystyle z=(z_{1},z_{2},\dots ,z_{n})}$ of non-zero complex numbers with values in the Euclidean space ${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n},}$ given by the formula

${\displaystyle \operatorname {Log} (z_{1},z_{2},\dots ,z_{n})={\big (}\log |z_{1}|,\log |z_{2}|,\dots ,\log |z_{n}|{\big )}.}$

Here, log denotes the natural logarithm. If p(z) is a polynomial in ${\displaystyle n}$ complex variables, its amoeba ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {A}}_{p}}$ is defined as the image of the set of zeros of p under Log, so

${\displaystyle {\mathcal {A}}_{p}=\left\{\operatorname {Log} (z):z\in {\big (}\mathbb {C} \setminus \{0\}{\big )}^{n},p(z)=0\right\}.}$

Amoebas were introduced in 1994 in a book by Gelfand, Kapranov, and Zelevinsky.[1]

• Any amoeba is a closed set.
• Any connected component of the complement ${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}\setminus {\mathcal {A}}_{p}}$ is convex.[2]
• The area of an amoeba of a not identically zero polynomial in two complex variables is finite.
• A two-dimensional amoeba has a number of "tentacles", which are infinitely long and exponentially narrow towards infinity.

A useful tool in studying amoebas is the Ronkin function. For p(z), a polynomial in n complex variables, one defines the Ronkin function

${\displaystyle N_{p}:\mathbb {R} ^{n}\to \mathbb {R} }$

by the formula

${\displaystyle N_{p}(x)={\frac {1}{(2\pi i)^{n}}}\int _{\operatorname {Log} ^{-1}(x)}\log |p(z)|\,{\frac {dz_{1}}{z_{1}}}\wedge {\frac {dz_{2}}{z_{2}}}\wedge \cdots \wedge {\frac {dz_{n}}{z_{n}}},}$

where ${\displaystyle x}$ denotes ${\displaystyle x=(x_{1},x_{2},\dots ,x_{n}).}$ Equivalently, ${\displaystyle N_{p}}$ is given by the integral

${\displaystyle N_{p}(x)={\frac {1}{(2\pi )^{n}}}\int _{[0,2\pi ]^{n}}\log |p(z)|\,d\theta _{1}\,d\theta _{2}\cdots d\theta _{n},}$

where

${\displaystyle z=\left(e^{x_{1}+i\theta _{1}},e^{x_{2}+i\theta _{2}},\dots ,e^{x_{n}+i\theta _{n}}\right).}$

The Ronkin function is convex and affine on each connected component of the complement of the amoeba of ${\displaystyle p(z)}$.[3]

As an example, the Ronkin function of a monomial

${\displaystyle p(z)=az_{1}^{k_{1}}z_{2}^{k_{2}}\dots z_{n}^{k_{n}}}$

with ${\displaystyle a\neq 0}$ is

${\displaystyle N_{p}(x)=\log |a|+k_{1}x_{1}+k_{2}x_{2}+\cdots +k_{n}x_{n}.}$

• Itenberg, Ilia; Mikhalkin, Grigory; Shustin, Eugenii (2007). Tropical algebraic geometry. Oberwolfach Seminars. Vol. 35. Basel: Birkhäuser. ISBN 978-3-7643-8309-1. Zbl 1162.14300.
• Viro, Oleg (2002), "What Is ... An Amoeba?" (PDF), Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 49 (8): 916–917.

• Theobald, Thorsten (2002). "Computing amoebas". Exp. Math. 11 (4): 513–526. doi:10.1080/10586458.2002.10504703. Zbl 1100.14048.

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• Amoebas of algebraic varieties