We prove that the monodromy group of a reduced irreducible square system of general polynomial equations equals the symmetric group. This is a natural first step towards the Galois theory of general systems of polynomial equations, because arbitrary systems split into reduced irreducible ones upon monomial changes of variables. In particular, our result proves the multivariate version of the Abel–Ruffini theorem: the classification of general systems of equations solvable by radicals reduces to the classification of lattice polytopes of mixed volume 4 (which we prove to be finite in every dimension). We also notice that the monodromy of every general system of equations is either symmetric or imprimitive. The proof is based on a new result of independent importance regarding dual defectiveness of systems of equations: the discriminant of a reduced irreducible square system of general polynomial equations is a hypersurface unless the system is linear up to a monomial change of variables.

We prove some vanishing theorems for the cohomology groups of local systems associated to Laurent polynomials. In particular, we extend one of the results of Gelfand et al. [Generalized Euler integrals and$A$-hypergeometric functions, Adv. Math. 84 (1990), 255–271] to various directions. In the course of the proof, some properties of vanishing cycles of perverse sheaves and twisted Morse theory are used.