This paper transfers a randomized algorithm, originally used in geometric optimization, to computational problems in commutative algebra. We show that Clarkson's sampling algorithm can be applied to two problems in computational algebra: solving large-scale polynomial systems and finding small generating sets of graded ideals. The cornerstone of our work is showing that the theory of violator spaces of Gärtner et al. applies to polynomial ideal problems. To show this, one utilizes a Helly-type result for algebraic varieties. The resulting algorithms have expected runtime linear in the number of input polynomials, making the ideas interesting for handling systems with very large numbers of polynomials, but whose rank in the vector space of polynomials is small (e.g., when the number of variables and degree is constant).

In this article, we evaluate the challenges and best practices associated with the Markov bases approach to sampling from conditional distributions. We provide insights and clarifications after 25 years of the publication of the Fundamental theorem for Markov bases by Diaconis and Sturmfels. In addition to a literature review, we prove three new results on the complexity of Markov bases in hierarchical models, relaxations of the fibers in log-linear models, and limitations of partial sets of moves in providing an irreducible Markov chain. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Inspired by the study of random graphs and simplicial complexes, and motivated by the need to understand average behavior of ideals, we propose and study probabilistic models of random monomial ideals. We prove theorems about the probability distributions, expectations and thresholds for events involving monomial ideals with given Hilbert function, Krull dimension, and first graded Betti numbers, and show that our models generalize several well-known random simplicial complex models. Finally we present several experimentally-backed conjectures about regularity, projective dimension, strong genericity, and Cohen–Macaulayness of random monomial ideals.