An Axiomatic Approach to Gröbner Basis Theory by Examining Several Reduction Principles

Several variants of the classical theory of Grobner bases can be found in the literature. They come, depending on the structure they operate on, with their own specific peculiarity. Setting up an expedient reduction concept depends on the arithmetic equipment that is provided by the structure in question. Often it is necessary to introduce a term order that can be used for determining the orientation of the reduction, the choice of which might be a delicate task. But there are other situations where a different type of structure might give the appropriate basis for formulating adequate rewrite rules. In this paper we have tried to find a unified concept for dealing with such situations. We develop a global theory of Grobner bases for modules over a large class of rings. The method is axiomatic in that we demand properties that should be satisfied by a reduction process. Reduction concepts obeying the principles formulated in the axioms are then guaranteed to terminate. The class of rings we consider is large enough to subsume interesting candidates. Among others this class contains rings of differential operators, Ore-algebras and rings of difference-differential operators. The theory is general enough to embrace the well-known classical Grobner basis concepts of commutative algebra as well as several modern approaches for modules over relevant noncommutative rings. We start with introducing the appropriate axioms step by step, derive consequences from them and end up with the Buchberger Algorithm, that makes it possible to compute a Grobner basis. At the end of the paper we provide a few examples to illustrate the abstract concepts in concrete situations.