A geometric criterion on the equality between BKK bound and intersection index

Abstract

The Bernshtein-Kushnirenko-Khovanskii theorem provides a generic root count for system of Laurent polynomials in terms of the mixed volume of their Newton polytopes (i.e., the BKK bound). A recent and far-reaching generalization of this theorem is the study of birationally invariant intersection index by Kaveh and Khovanskii. This short note establishes a simple geometric condition on the equality between the BKK bound and the intersection index for a system of vector spaces of Laurent polynomials. Applying this, we show that the intersection index for the algebraic Kuramoto equations equals their BKK bound.