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The Multivariate Schwartz-Zippel Lemma

Motivated by applications in combinatorial geometry, we consider the following question: Let $λ=(λ_1,λ_2,\ldots,λ_m)$ be an $m$-partition of a positive integer $n$, $S_i \subseteq \mathbb{C}^{λ_i}$ be finite sets, and let $S:=S_1 \times S_2 \times \ldots \times S_m \subset \mathbb{C}^n$ be the multi-grid defined by $S_i$. Suppose $p$ is an $n$-variate degree $d$ polynomial. How many zeros does $p$ have on $S$? We first develop a multivariate generalization of Combinatorial Nullstellensatz that certifies existence of a point $t \in S$ so that $p(t) \neq 0$. Then we show that a natural multivariate generalization of the DeMillo-Lipton-Schwartz-Zippel lemma holds, except for a special family of polynomials that we call $λ$-reducible. This yields a simultaneous generalization of Szemerédi-Trotter theorem and Schwartz-Zippel lemma into higher dimensions, and has applications in incidence geometry. Finally, we develop a symbolic algorithm that identifies certain $λ$-reducible polynomials. More precisely, our symbolic algorithm detects polynomials that include a cartesian product of hypersurfaces in their zero set. It is likely that using Chow forms the algorithm can be generalized to handle arbitrary $λ$-reducible polynomials, which we leave as an open problem.