The ‘qspray’ package

R package to deal with multivariate polynomials with rational coefficients.

This package is strongly inspired by Robin Hankin’s spray package. The C++ implementations are very similar.

library(qspray)

The qspray package provides the qspray objects, which represent multivariate polynomials whose coefficients are rational numbers.

Creating a qspray polynomial and arithmetic

The easiest way to build a multivariate polynomial with qspray is to start by introducing the generating variables with the help of the qlone function and then to combine them with arithmetic operations:

x <- qlone(1); y <- qlone(2); z <- qlone(3)
( pol <- 4*x^2 + "1/2"*y - 5*x*y*z/3 )
## 4*x^2 - 5/3*x.y.z + 1/2*y

I often like to use a function like this:

f <- function(x, y, z) {
  4*x^2 + y/2 - 5*x*y*z/3
}
f(x, y, z)
## 4*x^2 - 5/3*x.y.z + 1/2*y

Or maybe you prefer to define the polynomial by giving it as a string:

qsprayMaker(string = "4 x^(2) + 1/2 x^(0, 1) - 5/3 x^(1, 1, 1)")
## 4*x^2 - 5/3*x.y.z + 1/2*y

As you want, but this method is not highly robust. And it is not very easy to figure out what is the monomial represented by a string such as "x^(i,j,k)" (this is x^i*y^j*z^k).

Some arithmetic on this polynomial:

-pol
## -4*x^2 + 5/3*x.y.z - 1/2*y
2 * pol
## 8*x^2 - 10/3*x.y.z + y
pol / 2
## 2*x^2 - 5/6*x.y.z + 1/4*y
"5/3" * pol
## 20/3*x^2 - 25/9*x.y.z + 5/6*y
pol + 5
## 4*x^2 - 5/3*x.y.z + 1/2*y + 5
pol - gmp::as.bigq("2/5")
## 4*x^2 - 5/3*x.y.z + 1/2*y - 2/5
pol^2
## 16*x^4 - 40/3*x^3.y.z + 25/9*x^2.y^2.z^2 + 4*x^2.y - 5/3*x.y^2.z + 1/4*y^2

Two polynomials can be added and multiplied:

pol1 <- pol
pol2 <- pol
pol1 + pol2
## 8*x^2 - 10/3*x.y.z + y
pol1 - pol2
## 0
pol1 * pol2
## 16*x^4 - 40/3*x^3.y.z + 25/9*x^2.y^2.z^2 + 4*x^2.y - 5/3*x.y^2.z + 1/4*y^2

Evaluating a qspray

Use evalQspray to evaluate a polynomial for some values of the variables:

evalQspray(pol, c("1", "2", "3/2"))
## Big Rational ('bigq') :
## [1] 0

Alternatively, you can convert the polynomial to a function:

g <- as.function(pol)
g("1", "2", "3/2")
## [1] "0"

You can pass the strings you want as the arguments of this function:

g("x", "y", "z")
## [1] "(24*x^2-10*x*z*y+3*y)/6"
g("x+1", "2*x", "y^2")
## [1] "((-10)*x^2*y^2+12*x^2+(-10)*x*y^2+27*x+12)/3"

The output of g("x+1", "2*x", "y^2") is the expression of a bivariate polynomial. You can get it as a qspray polynomial with the help of the function changeVariables (see section Transforming a qspray).

If you want a function returning numerical approximations, use the option N=TRUE:

h <- as.function(pol, N = TRUE)
h("1", "2", "3/2")
## [1] 2e-29
h("x", "y", "z")
## expression(4 * x^2 - 1.6666666666 * x * y * z + 0.5 * y)
h("x+1", "2*x", "y^2")
## expression(-3.3333333333 * x^2 * y^2 + 4 * x^2 - 3.3333333333 * 
##     x * y^2 + 9 * x + 4)

You can also perform “partial evaluation” of a qspray, that is to say replacing only certain variables. This is done by using the function substituteQspray and indicating the variables to be kept with NA:

substituteQspray(pol, c("1", NA, "3/2"))
## -2*y + 4
f(gmp::as.bigq(1), y, gmp::as.bigq("3/2"))
## -2*y + 4
g("1", "y", "3/2")
## [1] "2*(2-y)"
h("1", "y", "3/2")
## expression(-2 * y + 4)

Showing a qspray

You can control the way of printing a qspray with the help of the function showQsprayOption<-. By default, the monomials of a qspray are printed in the style of x^2.y.z^3 if there are no more than three variables, otherwise they are printed in the style of x1^2.x2.x3^3:

set.seed(3141)
( qspray <- rQspray() ) # a random qspray
## -2*x^4.y^3.z^4 - 4*y^2.z^2
qspray + qlone(4)^99
## -2*x1^4.x2^3.x3^4 - 4*x2^2.x3^2 + x4^99

If you want to always use the second way, you can do:

showQsprayOption(qspray, "x") <- "x"
qspray
## -2*x1^4.x2^3.x3^4 - 4*x2^2.x3^2

If you want to restore the way qspray objects were printed in previous versions, you can do

showQsprayOption(qspray, "showMonomial") <- showMonomialOld()
qspray
## -2*x^(4, 3, 4) - 4*x^(0, 2, 2)

There are three possible show options that can be passed to showQsprayOption:

• The most general show option is "showQspray". A showQspray function, that is to say a function appropriate for the "showQspray" option, must be a function which transforms a qspray to a string. The package provides some helper functions to built such functions, like showQsprayXYZ and showQsprayX1X2X3. With showQsprayXYZ, you can choose the letters you want to denote the variables:

f <- showQsprayXYZ(c("A", "B", "C"))
f(qspray)
## [1] "-2*A^4.B^3.C^4 - 4*B^2.C^2"

With showQsprayX1X2X3, you choose only one letter for the variables and they will be appended with a digit:

f <- showQsprayX1X2X3("X")
f(qspray)
## [1] "-2*X1^4.X2^3.X3^4 - 4*X2^2.X3^2"

Once you have constructed such a function, you pass it as a show option by doing showQsprayOption(qspray, "showQspray") <- f.

• The second possible show option is "showMonomial", to control the way the monomials are printed. Actually in the two above examples of showQsprayXYZ and showQsprayX1X2X3 we only changed the way the monomials are printed. Indeed, these two commands are equivalent:

showQsprayOption(qspray, "showQspray") <- showQsprayXYZ(c("A", "B", "C"))
showQsprayOption(qspray, "showMonomial") <- showMonomialXYZ(c("A", "B", "C"))

and these two commands are equivalent as well:

showQsprayOption(qspray, "showQspray") <- showQsprayX1X2X3("X")
showQsprayOption(qspray, "showMonomial") <- showMonomialX1X2X3("X")

But the showQspray functions allow finer control, e.g. they allow to control the multiplication symbol which separates a coefficient and a monomial within a term.

• Finally there is the show option "x". Setting this option to a letter x:

showQsprayOption(qspray, "x") <- x

is equivalent to:

showQsprayOption(qspray, "showMonomial") <- showMonomialX1X2X3(x)

But showMonomialX1X2X3 also allows to control the way the individual powers are collapsed, e.g. "x^2.y.z^3" (the default) or "x^2*y*z^3", or "x^2yz^3". If the dot is nice for you, use the "x" option, that’s less code to type.

By the way, a qspray object is an S4 object with two slots: powers and coeffs. The powers slot is a list of vector of exponents and the coeffs slot is a character vector, whose each element is coercable to a bigq number by an application of the function gmp::as.bigq. The showMonomial functions act only on the powers slot.

When an arithmetic operation is performed between two qspray objects, the show options of the first one are passed to the result, if possible:

qspray + qlone(4)^99
## -2*X1^4.X2^3.X3^4 - 4*X2^2.X3^2 + X4^99

For example, this is not possible if you specify only three letters for the variables and you perform an operation with a qspray involving the fourth variable:

showQsprayOption(qspray, "showMonomial") <- showMonomialXYZ(c("a", "b", "c"))
qspray
## -2*a^4.b^3.c^4 - 4*b^2.c^2
qspray + qlone(4)^99
## -2*a1^4.a2^3.a3^4 - 4*a2^2.a3^2 + a4^99

Exact integration over a simplex

The package provides a function which returns the exact value of the integral of a polynomial with rational coefficients over a simplex whose vertices have rational Cartesian coordinates:

# variables
x <- qlone(1); y <- qlone(2); z <- qlone(3)
# polynomial
P <- x^4 + y + 2*x*y^2 - 3*z
# simplex (tetrahedron) vertices
v1 <- c(1, 1, 1)
v2 <- c(2, 2, 3)
v3 <- c(3, 4, 5)
v4 <- c(3, 2, 1)
# simplex
S <- rbind(v1, v2, v3, v4)
# integral
integratePolynomialOnSimplex(P, S)
## Big Rational ('bigq') :
## [1] 1387/42

Transforming a qspray

Let’s take a qspray polynomial:

f <- function(x, y, z) {
  4*x^2 + y/2 - 5*x*y*z/3
}
x <- qlone(1); y <- qlone(2); z <- qlone(3)
P <- f(x, y, z)

You can get a derivative of this polynomial:

derivQspray(P, i = 2) # derivative w.r.t y
## -5/3*x.z + 1/2

You can permute the variables of this polynomial:

swapVariables(P, 1, 3) == f(z, y, x)
## [1] TRUE

You can perform a change of variables on this polynomial:

changeVariables(P, list(x+1, 2*x, y^2)) == f(x+1, 2*x, y^2)
## [1] TRUE

Gröbner bases

Finally, let us mention the groebner function, which computes a Gröbner basis of the ideal generated by a list of qspray polynomials:

f <- qsprayMaker(string = "x^(3) - 2 x^(1,1)")
g <- qsprayMaker(string = "x^(2,1) - 2 x^(0,2) + x^(1)")
groebner(list(f, g))
## [[1]]
## x - 2*y^2 
## 
## [[2]]
## y^3

As an application of Gröbner bases, there is the function isPolynomialOf. This function checks whether a polynomial can be obtained by substituting the variables of a polynomial with some given polynomials: given a qspray polynomial Q and some qspray polynomials P1, …, Pn, does there exist a polynomial function f such that Q = f(P1, ..., Pn)? If this is true, the isPolynomialOf function also returns f.

Packages using ‘qspray’

There are packages depending on the qspray package (some of them are not on CRAN yet):

• polyhedralCubature: this package uses the integratePolynomialOnSimplex function to get the exact integral of a multivariate polynomial over a polytope.

• jack: Jack polynomials.

• resultant: resultant, subresultants, and greatest common divisor of two qspray polynomials.

• ratioOfQsprays: fractions of qspray polynomials.

• symbolicQspray: multivariate polynomials whose coefficients are ratioOfQsprays fractions of polynomials; they represent multivariate polynomials with parameters.

Using the C++ code in another package

The three packages jack, ratioOfQsprays and symbolicQspray use some C++ code based on the header file of the C++ code of qspray. If you want to use it in your package too, include the following instruction in the DESCRIPTION file:

LinkingTo: Rcpp, RcppArmadillo, qspray

And include the following instruction in your C++ code:

#include "qspray.h"

Then you can use the qspray header file in your C++ code by using the namespace QSPRAY.

The header file provides the templated class Qspray. An object of type Qspray<T> represents a multivariate polynomials whose coefficients are represented by the objects of the type T. For example, multivariate polynomials with numeric coefficients can be represented by the objects of type Qspray<double> (so I should have chosen another name since Q is here to indicate the field of rational numbers). The class Qspray provides the operators ==, !=, +, -, * and the power for the objects of type Qspray<T> as long as the operators ==, !=, +, - and * are available for the type T. So you don’t have to implement the comparison operators nor the arithmetic operations for the Qspray<double> polynomials if you instantiate this type. The class Qspray also provides a function to calculate derivatives. This class is included in the namespace QSPRAY which also includes a function performing the division of two multivariate polynomials but it is restricted to polynomials with rational coefficients. Anyway it would not be a good idea to use the algorithm performed by this function for polynomials whose coefficients type is not an “exact type”, such as double. If you want to use Qspray<T> with an exact type T and if you need the division, send me a few words about your use case and I will see whether I can help. I will probably remove the division from the namespace QSPRAY. I originally included it to use it in the ratioOfQsprays package, but I finally used the division provided by the CGAL library instead, which is faster.

A few words about the implementation. The class Qspray<T> has only one member object: an object of type Polynomial<T>, which is an alias of the type std::unordered_map<std::vector<int>, T> (plus a template argument for the hasher). So a Polynomial<T> object is a map whose keys are std::vector<int> objects and whose values are T objects. An element of this map represents a term of the polynomial: a key represents a monomial, e.g. the vector {2,1,3} represents the monomial x^2*y*z^3, and the value attached to this key represents the coefficient of this monomial. This way to represent a multivariate polynomial has been copied from Robin Hankin’s spray package, without which the qspray package would have never existed.