The Hilbert series for a general monomial ideal, by inclusion-exclusion.
The ideal membership problem, for monomial ideals.
The notation a == b mod I, and the generators of I as substitution rules in such congruences.
Term orders on monomials, which we will require to be well-orderings.
Examples: the lexicographic order, and the graded lexicographic order.
Given a term order, any polynomial p has a most expensive term, init p.
The reduction algorithm for testing ideal membership:
if p has a monomial m that's a multiple of some g_i,
replace p by p - (m/init g_i) g_i.
(It's enough to look only at p's most expensive monomial, init p.)
By the well-ordering condition, this terminates.
If the result is zero, then yes, the original p was in the ideal.
Scary example: I = < x-y, x-z >, with x the most expensive term. Then y-z is in the ideal, but this algorithm can't show it.
