Geometry of Higher-Order Markov Chains

We determine an explicit Gr\"obner basis, consisting of linear forms and determinantal quadrics, for the prime ideal of Raftery's mixture transition distribution model for Markov chains. When the states are binary, the corresponding projective variety is a linear space, the model itself consists of two simplices in a cross-polytope, and the likelihood function typically has two local maxima. In the general non-binary case, the model corresponds to a cone over a Segre variety.Comment: 9 page

Equations Defining Toric Varieties

This article will appear in the proceedings of the AMS Summer Institute in Algebraic Geometry at Santa Cruz, July 1995. The topic is toric ideals, by which I mean the defining ideals of subvarieties of affine or projective space which are parametrized by monomials. Numerous open problems are given.Comment: AMS-Tex, 13 page

Elimination Theory in Codimension Two

New formulas are given for Chow forms, discriminants and resultants arising from (not necessarily normal) toric varieties of codimension 2. Exact descriptions are also given for the secondary polygon and for the Newton polygon of the discriminant.Comment: 20 pages, Late