Let be an N-tuple. Let us define:
For functions let us define:
This abbreviated notation will be of great use to us in the following pages and in the proof.
Let be a field. Then is the polynomial space in variables with coefficients in .
A monomial is a polynomial of the form , such that and .
Let , and let be an exponent vector. Let us define:
- The degree of a non-zero polynomial is equal to the maximum of the degrees of its compsing monomials.
Monomial multiplication maintains exponent vector addition:
Let be monomials.
We say that is of lower order than (and denote it by ) if there exists an index such that
In other words, the vectors have a lexicographic ordering.
In a polynomial , the monomial of maximal order is called the leading monomial, and is denoted by .
Let be polynomials. Then .
Let be monomials, with .
1. Let us assume that . We will show that for all .
By definition, there exists an index such that
2. Let us assume also that . We will show that .
By definition, there exist indexes such that respectively
hence:
Let be a polynomial. Let us define:
Meaning, the set of all monic monomials of degree which are of lower order than .