Bounding the number of common zeros of multivariate polynomials and their consecutive derivatives

Abstract

We upper bound the number of common zeros over a finite grid of multivariate polynomials and an arbitrary finite collection of their consecutive Hasse derivatives (in a coordinate-wise sense). To that end, we make use of the tool from Gr\"obner basis theory known as footprint. Then we establish and prove extensions in this context of a family of well-known results in algebra and combinatorics. These include Alon's combinatorial Nullstellensatz, existence and uniqueness of Hermite interpolating polynomials over a grid, estimations on the parameters of evaluation codes with consecutive derivatives, and bounds on the number of zeros of a polynomial by DeMillo and Lipton, Schwartz, Zippel, and Alon and F\"uredi. As an alternative, we also extend the Schwartz-Zippel bound to weighted multiplicities and discuss its connection with our extension of the footprint bound.