Ring graphs and complete intersection toric ideals

We study the family of graphs whose number of primitive cycles equals its cycle rank. It is shown that this family is precisely the family of ring graphs. Then we study the complete intersection property of toric ideals of bipartite graphs and oriented graphs. An interesting application is that complete intersection toric ideals of bipartite graphs correspond to ring graphs and that these ideals are minimally generated by Groebner bases. We prove that any graph can be oriented such that its toric ideal is a complete intersection with a universal Groebner basis determined by the cycles. It turns out that bipartite ring graphs are exactly the bipartite graphs that have complete intersection toric ideals for any orientation.Comment: Discrete Math., to appea

Regularity and algebraic properties of certain lattice ideals

We study the regularity and the algebraic properties of certain lattice ideals. We establish a map I --> I\~ between the family of graded lattice ideals in an N-graded polynomial ring over a field K and the family of graded lattice ideals in a polynomial ring with the standard grading. This map is shown to preserve the complete intersection property and the regularity of I but not the degree. We relate the Hilbert series and the generators of I and I\~. If dim(I)=1, we relate the degrees of I and I\~. It is shown that the regularity of certain lattice ideals is additive in a certain sense. Then, we give some applications. For finite fields, we give a formula for the regularity of the vanishing ideal of a degenerate torus in terms of the Frobenius number of a semigroup. We construct vanishing ideals, over finite fields, with prescribed regularity and degree of a certain type. Let X be a subset of a projective space over a field K. It is shown that the vanishing ideal of X is a lattice ideal of dimension 1 if and only if X is a finite subgroup of a projective torus. For finite fields, it is shown that X is a subgroup of a projective torus if and only if X is parameterized by monomials. We express the regularity of the vanishing ideal over a bipartie graph in terms of the regularities of the vanishing ideals of the blocks of the graph.Comment: Bull. Braz. Math. Soc. (N.S.), to appea

Matroid toric ideals: complete intersection, minors and minimal systems of generators

In this paper, we investigate three problems concerning the toric ideal associated to a matroid. Firstly, we list all matroids $\mathcal M$ such that its corresponding toric ideal $I_{\mathcal M}$ is a complete intersection. Secondly, we handle with the problem of detecting minors of a matroid $\mathcal M$ from a minimal set of binomial generators of $I_{\mathcal M}$. In particular, given a minimal set of binomial generators of $I_{\mathcal M}$ we provide a necessary condition for $\mathcal M$ to have a minor isomorphic to $\mathcal U_{d,2d}$ for $d \geq 2$. This condition is proved to be sufficient for $d = 2$ (leading to a criterion for determining whether $\mathcal M$ is binary) and for $d = 3$. Finally, we characterize all matroids $\mathcal M$ such that $I_{\mathcal M}$ has a unique minimal set of binomial generators.Comment: 9 page

Generalized multiplicities of edge ideals

We explore connections between the generalized multiplicities of square-free monomial ideals and the combinatorial structure of the underlying hypergraphs using methods of commutative algebra and polyhedral geometry. For instance, we show the $j$-multiplicity is multiplicative over the connected components of a hypergraph, and we explicitly relate the $j$-multiplicity of the edge ideal of a properly connected uniform hypergraph to the Hilbert-Samuel multiplicity of its special fiber ring. In addition, we provide general bounds for the generalized multiplicities of the edge ideals and compute these invariants for classes of uniform hypergraphs.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures. The results of Theorem 4.6 and Theorem 9.2 are now more general. To appear in Journal of Algebraic Combinatoric

Toric ideals and diagonal 2-minors

Let $G$ be a simple graph on the vertex set $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ with $m$ edges. An algebraic object attached to $G$ is the ideal $P_{G}$ generated by diagonal 2-minors of an $n \times n$ matrix of variables. In this paper we prove that if $G$ is bipartite, then every initial ideal of $P_{G}$ is generated by squarefree monomials of degree at most $\left \lfloor{\frac{m+n+1}{2}} \right \rfloor$. Furthermore, we completely characterize all connected graphs $G$ for which $P_{G}$ is the toric ideal associated to a finite simple graph. Finally we compute in certain cases the universal Gr{\"o}bner basis of $P_{G}$.Comment: To appear in Acta Mathematica Hungaric