An algebraic integration for Mahler measure

Abstract

There are many examples of several variable polynomials whose Mahler measure is expressed in terms of special values of polylogarithms. These examples are expected to be related to computations of regulators, as observed by Deninger [D] and, later, by Rodriguez-Villegas [R] and Maillot [M]. While Rodriguez-Villegas made this relationship explicit for the two-variable case, it is our goal to understand the three-variable case and shed some light on the examples with more variables