Root polytopes, tropical types, and toric edge ideals

We consider arrangements of tropical hyperplanes where the apices of the hyperplanes are taken to infinity in certain directions. Such an arrangement defines a decomposition of Euclidean space where a cell is determined by its `type' data, analogous to the covectors of an oriented matroid. By work of Develin-Sturmfels and Fink-Rinc\'{o}n, these `tropical complexes' are dual to (regular) subdivisions of root polytopes, which in turn are in bijection with mixed subdivisions of certain generalized permutohedra. Extending previous work with Joswig-Sanyal, we show how a natural monomial labeling of these complexes describes polynomial relations (syzygies) among `type ideals' which arise naturally from the combinatorial data of the arrangement. In particular, we show that the cotype ideal is Alexander dual to a corresponding initial ideal of the lattice ideal of the underlying root polytope. This leads to novel ways of studying algebraic properties of various monomial and toric ideals, as well as relating them to combinatorial and geometric properties. In particular, our methods of studying the dimension of the tropical complex leads to new formulas for homological invariants of toric edge ideals of bipartite graphs, which have been extensively studied in the commutative algebra community.Comment: 45 page

Convex and Algebraic Geometry

The subjects of convex and algebraic geometry meet primarily in the theory of toric varieties. Toric geometry is the part of algebraic geometry where all maps are given by monomials in suitable coordinates, and all equations are binomial. The combinatorics of the exponents of monomials and binomials is sufficient to embed the geometry of lattice polytopes in algebraic geometry. Recent developments in toric geometry that were discussed during the workshop include applications to mirror symmetry, motivic integration and hypergeometric systems of PDE’s, as well as deformations of (unions of) toric varieties and relations to tropical geometry

Tropical types and associated cellular resolutions

An arrangement of finitely many tropical hyperplanes in the tropical torus leads to a notion of `type' data for points, with the underlying unlabeled arrangement giving rise to `coarse type'. It is shown that the decomposition of the tropical torus induced by types gives rise to minimal cocellular resolutions of certain associated monomial ideals. Via the Cayley trick from geometric combinatorics this also yields cellular resolutions supported on mixed subdivisions of dilated simplices, extending previously known constructions. Moreover, the methods developed lead to an algebraic algorithm for computing the facial structure of arbitrary tropical complexes from point data.Comment: minor correction

Applications of tropical combinatorics and monomial modules

PhDWe study three aspects of tropical combinatorics and monomial modules. In the fi rst, we consider the tropical geometry specifi cally arising from convergent Puiseux series in multiple indeterminates. One application is a new view on stable intersections of tropical hypersurfaces. Another one is the study of families of ordinary convex polytopes depending on more than one parameter through tropical geometry. In the second, we consider matching fi elds and their connections to combinatorial geometry. We show that the Chow covectors of a linkage matching fi eld defi ne a bijection of lattice points, resolving two open questions from Sturmfels & Zelevinsky. We use a similar method to prove that, given a triangulation of a product of two simplices encoded by a set of bipartite trees, the bijection from left to right degree vectors of the trees is enough to recover the triangulation. As additional results, we show a cryptomorphic description of linkage matching fi elds and characterise the flip graph of a linkage matching fi eld in terms of its prodsimplicial flag complex. In the third, we study commutative algebra arising from generalised Frobenius numbers. We defi ne generalised lattice modules, a class of monomial modules whose Castelnuovo{ Mumford regularity captures the k-th Frobenius number. We study the fi ltration of generalised lattice modules providing an explicit characterisation of their minimal generators, and show that there are only finitely many isomorphism classes of generalised lattice modules. As a consequence of our commutative algebraic approach, we prove structural results on the sequence of generalised Frobenius numbers and also construct an algorithm to compute them.This work was supported by the EPSRC (1673882). Furthermore I am grateful to Queen Mary University of London and the Eileen Coyler Priz

Dyck path triangulations and extendability

We introduce the Dyck path triangulation of the cartesian product of two simplices $\Delta_{n-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$. The maximal simplices of this triangulation are given by Dyck paths, and its construction naturally generalizes to produce triangulations of $\Delta_{r\ n-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$ using rational Dyck paths. Our study of the Dyck path triangulation is motivated by extendability problems of partial triangulations of products of two simplices. We show that whenever $m\geq k>n$, any triangulation of $\Delta_{m-1}^{(k-1)}\times\Delta_{n-1}$ extends to a unique triangulation of $\Delta_{m-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$. Moreover, with an explicit construction, we prove that the bound $k>n$ is optimal. We also exhibit interesting interpretations of our results in the language of tropical oriented matroids, which are analogous to classical results in oriented matroid theory.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures. Comments very welcome

Dyck path triangulations and extendability (extended abstract)

International audienceWe introduce the Dyck path triangulation of the cartesian product of two simplices $\Delta_{n-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$. The maximal simplices of this triangulation are given by Dyck paths, and its construction naturally generalizes to produce triangulations of $\Delta_{r\ n-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$ using rational Dyck paths. Our study of the Dyck path triangulation is motivated by extendability problems of partial triangulations of products of two simplices. We show that whenever$m\geq k>n$, any triangulations of $\Delta_{m-1}^{(k-1)}\times\Delta_{n-1}$ extends to a unique triangulation of $\Delta_{m-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$. Moreover, with an explicit construction, we prove that the bound $k>n$ is optimal. We also exhibit interpretations of our results in the language of tropical oriented matroids, which are analogous to classical results in oriented matroid theory.Nous introduisons la triangulation par chemins de Dyck du produit cartésien de deux simplexes $\Delta_{n-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$. Les simplexes maximaux de cette triangulation sont donnés par des chemins de Dyck, et cette construction se généralise de façon naturelle pour produire des triangulations $\Delta_{r\ n-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$ qui utilisent des chemins de Dyck rationnels. Notre étude de la triangulation par chemins de Dyck est motivée par des problèmes de prolongement de triangulations partielles de produits de deux simplexes. On montre que $m\geq k>n$ alors toute triangulation de $\Delta_{m-1}^{(k-1)}\times\Delta_{n-1}$ se prolonge en une unique triangulation de $\Delta_{m-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$. De plus, avec une construction explicite, nous montrons que la borne $k>n$ est optimale. Nous présentons aussi des interprétations de nos résultats dans le langage des matroïdes orientés tropicaux, qui sont analogues aux résultats classiques de la théorie des matroïdes orientés

Of matroid polytopes, chow rings and character polynomials

Matroids are combinatorial structures that capture various notions of independence. Recently there has been great interest in studying various matroid invariants. In this thesis, we study two such invariants: Volume of matroid base polytopes and the Tutte polynomial. We gave an approach to computing volume of matroid base polytopes using cyclic flats and apply it to the case of sparse paving matroids. For the Tutte polynomial, we recover (some of) its coefficients as degrees of certain forms in the Chow ring of underlying matroid. Lastly, we study the stability of characters of the symmetric group via character polynomials. We show a combinatorial identity in the ring of class functions that implies stability results for certain class of Kronecker coefficients

Tropical Geometry in Singular

Das Ziel dieser Dissertation ist die Entwicklung und Implementation eines Algorithmus zur Berechnung von tropischen Varietäten über allgemeine bewertete Körper. Die Berechnung von tropischen Varietäten über Körper mit trivialer Bewertung ist ein hinreichend gelöstes Problem. Hierfür kombinieren die Autoren Bogart, Jensen, Speyer, Sturmfels und Thomas eindrucksvoll klassische Techniken der Computeralgebra mit konstruktiven Methoden der konvexer Geometrie. Haben wir allerdings einen Grundkörper mit nicht-trivialer Bewertung, wie zum Beispiel den Körper der $p$-adischen Zahlen $\mathbb{Q}_p$, dann stößt die konventionelle Gröbnerbasentheorie scheinbar an ihre Grenzen. Die zugrundeliegenden Monomordnungen sind nicht geeignet um Problemstellungen zu untersuchen, die von einer nicht-trivialen Bewertung auf den Koeffizienten abhängig sind. Dies führte zu einer Reihe von Arbeiten, welche die gängige Gröbnerbasentheorie modifizieren um die Bewertung des Grundkörpers einzubeziehen.$$\phantom{newline}$$ In dieser Arbeit präsentieren wir einen alternativen Ansatz und zeigen, wie sich die Bewertung mittels einer speziell eingeführten Variable emulieren lässt, so dass eine Modifikation der klassischen Werkzeuge nicht notwendig ist. Im Rahmen dessen wird Theorie der Standardbasen auf Potenzreihen über einen Koeffizientenring verallgemeinert. Hierbei wird besonders Wert darauf gelegt, dass alle Algorithmen bei polynomialen Eingabedaten mit ihren klassischen Pendants übereinstimmen, sodass für praktische Zwecke auf bereits etablierte Softwaresysteme zurückgegriffen werden kann. Darüber hinaus wird die Konstruktion des Gröbnerfächers sowie die Technik des Gröbnerwalks für leicht inhomogene Ideale eingeführt. Dies ist notwendig, da bei der Einführung der neuen Variable die Homogenität des Ausgangsideal gebrochen wird.$$\phantom{newline}$$ Alle Algorithmen wurden in Singular implementiert und sind als Teil der offiziellen Distribution erhältlich. Es ist die erste Implementation, welches in der Lage ist tropische Varietäten mit $p$-adischer Bewertung auszurechnen. Im Rahmen der Arbeit entstand ebenfalls ein Singular Paket für konvexe Geometrie, sowie eine Schnittstelle zu Polymake