Symbolic Computation Group

A hyperplane arrangement is a finite union of hyperplanes in a vector space. Arrangements, and some straightforward constructions performed on them, produce topological spaces,
algebraic varieties and combinatorial objects that arise in a range of ``natural'' settings.

I will give an informal introduction to some of these constructions by means of computational examples. Together with Greg Smith, I have developed an add-on package to Grayson and Stillman's symbolic algebra system Macaulay 2 for the purpose of computing with hyperplane arrangements. I will demonstrate some of its features and try to show how computer algebra can be (very) useful in the research I do.