The solving degrees for computing Gröbner bases of affine semi-regular polynomial sequences

In this paper, we study the solving degrees for affine semi-regular sequences and their homogenized sequences. Some of our results are considered to give mathematically rigorous proofs of the correctness of methods for computing Gröbner bases of the ideal generated by an affine semi-regular sequence. This paper is a sequel of the authors' previous work and gives additional results on the solving degrees and important behaviors of Gröbner basis computation. We also define the generalized degree of regularity for a sequence of homogeneous polynomials. For the ideal generated by the homogenization of an affine semi-regular sequence, we relate its generalized degree of regularity with its maximal Gröbner basis degree (i.e., the solving degree for the homogenized sequence). The definition of a generalized (cryptographic) semi-regular sequence is also given, and it derives a new cryptographic assumption to estimate the security of cryptosystems. From our experimental observation, we raise a conjecture and some questions related to this generalized semi-regularity. These definitions and our results provide a theoretical formulation of (somehow heuristic) discussions done so far in the cryptographic community.