The homotopy type of the polyhedral product for shifted complexes

We prove a conjecture of Bahri, Bendersky, Cohen and Gitler: if K$K$ is a shifted simplicial complex on n$n$ vertices, _X1,…,_Xn$X_1,\dots ,X_n$ are pointed connected CW$CW$-complexes and C_Xi$C{X}_i$ is the cone on  _Xi$X_i$, then the polyhedral product determined by K$K$ and the pairs (C_Xi,_Xi)$(C{X}_i,X_i)$ is homotopy equivalent to a wedge of suspensions of smashes of the _Xi$X_i$’s. Earlier work of the authors dealt with the special case where each _Xi$X_i$ is a loop space. New techniques are introduced to prove the general case. These have the advantage of simplifying the earlier results and of being sufficiently general to show that the conjecture holds for a substantially larger class of simplicial complexes. We discuss connections between polyhedral products and toric topology, combinatorics, and classical homotopy theory.     

Uniformly primary ideals

This article introduces and advances the basic theory of “uniformly primary ideals” for commutative rings, a concept that imposes a certain boundedness condition on the usual notion of “primary ideal”. Characterizations of uniformly primary ideals are provided along with examples that give the theory independent value. Applications are also provided in contexts that are relevant to Noetherian rings.     

Local Euler obstructions of toric varieties

We use Matsui and Takeuchi's formula for toric A-discriminants to give algorithms for computing local Euler obstructions and dual degrees of toric surfaces and 3-folds. In particular, we consider weighted projective spaces. As an application we give counterexamples to a conjecture by Matsui and Takeuchi. As another application we recover the well-known fact that the only defective normal toric surfaces are cones.     

Projective generation of ideals in a certain ring

Let R be an affine domain of dimension $n\ge 3$ over a field of characteristic 0 and $D=R[X,Y]/(XY)$. Let $I?D$ be a local complete intersection ideal of height n such that $\mu (I/I^2)=n$. This paper examines under what condition I is surjective image of a projective D-module of rank n.     

On the rigidity of the cotangent complex at the prime 2

In [D. Quillen, On the (co)homology of commutative rings, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 17 (1970) 65-87; L. Avramov, Locally complete intersection homomorphisms and a conjecture of Quillen on the vanishing of cotangent homology, Annals of Math. 2 (150) (1999) 455-487] a conjecture was posed to the effect that if R→A is a homomorphism of Noetherian commutative rings then the flat dimension, as defined in the derived category of A-modules, of the associated cotangent complex L_A/R satisfies: . The aim of this paper is to initiate an approach for solving this conjecture when R has characteristic 2 using simplicial algebra techniques. To that end, we obtain two results. First, we prove that the conjecture can be reframed in terms of certain nilpotence properties for the divided square γ₂ and the André operation ? as it acts on Tor_R(A,?), ? any residue field of A. Second, we prove the conjecture is valid in two cases: when and when R is a Cohen-Macaulay ring.     

Gröbner bases for spaces of quadrics of codimension 3

Let R=⊕_i≥0R_i be an Artinian standard graded K-algebra defined by quadrics. Assume that dimR₂≤3 and that K is algebraically closed, of characteristic ≠2. We show that R is defined by a Gröbner basis of quadrics with, essentially, one exception. The exception is given by K[x,y,z]/I where I is a complete intersection of three quadrics not containing a square of a linear form.     

One-parameter toric deformations of cyclic quotient singularities

In the case of two-dimensional cyclic quotient singularities, we classify all one-parameter toric deformations in terms of certain Minkowski decompositions introduced by Altmann [Minkowski sums and homogeneous deformations of toric varieties, Tohoku Math. J. (2) 47 (2) (1995) 151-184.]. In particular, we show how to induce each deformation from a versal family, describe exactly to which reduced versal base space components each such deformation maps, describe the singularities in the general fibers, and construct the corresponding partial simultaneous resolutions.     

On the critical ideals of graphs

We introduce some determinantal ideals of the generalized Laplacian matrix associated to a digraph G, that we call critical ideals of G. Critical ideals generalize the critical group and the characteristic polynomials of the adjacency and Laplacian matrices of a digraph. The main results of this article are the determination of some minimal generator sets and the reduced Gröbner basis for the critical ideals of the complete graphs, the cycles and the paths. Also, we establish a bound between the number of trivial critical ideals and the stability and clique numbers of a graph.     

Homology of artinian and Matlis reflexive modules, I

Let R be a commutative local noetherian ring, and let L and L^′ be R-modules. We investigate the properties of the functors and . For instance, we show the following:

(a)

if L and L^′ are artinian, then is artinian, and is noetherian over the completion ;

(b)

if L is artinian and L^′ is Matlis reflexive, then , , and are Matlis reflexive.

Also, we study the vanishing behavior of these functors, and we include computations demonstrating the sharpness of our results.     

Improving the bounds of the multiplicity conjecture: The codimension 3 level case

The Multiplicity Conjecture (MC) of Huneke and Srinivasan provides upper and lower bounds for the multiplicity of a Cohen-Macaulay algebra A in terms of the shifts appearing in the modules of the minimal free resolution (MFR) of A. All the examples studied so far have lead to conjecture (see [J. Herzog, X. Zheng, Notes on the multiplicity conjecture. Collect. Math. 57 (2006) 211-226] and [J. Migliore, U. Nagel, T. Römer, Extensions of the multiplicity conjecture, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. (preprint: math.AC/0505229) (in press)]) that, moreover, the bounds of the MC are sharp if and only if A has a pure MFR. Therefore, it seems a reasonable-and useful-idea to seek better, if possibly ad hoc, bounds for particular classes of Cohen-Macaulay algebras.In this work we will only consider the codimension 3 case. In the first part we will stick to the bounds of the MC, and show that they hold for those algebras whose h-vector is that of a compressed algebra.In the second part, we will (mainly) focus on the level case: we will construct new conjectural upper and lower bounds for the multiplicity of a codimension 3 level algebra A, which can be expressed exclusively in terms of the h-vector of A, and which are better than (or equal to) those provided by the MC. Also, our bounds can be sharp even when the MFR of A is not pure.Even though proving our bounds still appears too difficult a task in general, we are already able to show them for some interesting classes of codimension 3 level algebras A: namely, when A is compressed, or when its h-vector h(A) ends with (…,3,2). Also, we will prove our lower bound when h(A) begins with (1,3,h₂,…), where h₂≤4, and our upper bound when h(A) ends with (…,h_c−1,h_c), where h_c−1≤h_c+1.     

Representations of matroids and free resolutions for multigraded modules

Let k be a field, let R=k[x₁,…,xm] be a polynomial ring with the standard Zm-grading (multigrading), let L be a Noetherian multigraded R-module, and let be a finite free multigraded presentation of L over R. Given a choice S of a multihomogeneous basis of E, we construct an explicit canonical finite free multigraded resolution T_•(Φ,S) of the R-module L. In the case of monomial ideals our construction recovers the Taylor resolution. A main ingredient of our work is a new linear algebra construction of independent interest, which produces from a representation ? over k of a matroid M a canonical finite complex of finite dimensional k-vector spaces T_•(?) that is a resolution of Ker?. We also show that the length of T_•(?) and the dimensions of its components are combinatorial invariants of the matroid M, and are independent of the representation map ?.     

On the topology of graph picture spaces

We study the space of pictures of a graph G in complex projective d-space. The main result is that the homology groups (with integer coefficients) of are completely determined by the Tutte polynomial of G. One application is a criterion in terms of the Tutte polynomial for independence in the d-parallel matroids studied in combinatorial rigidity theory. For certain special graphs called orchards, the picture space is smooth and has the structure of an iterated projective bundle. We give a Borel presentation of the cohomology ring of the picture space of an orchard, and use this presentation to develop an analogue of the classical Schubert calculus.     

Inside-out polytopes

We present a common generalization of counting lattice points in rational polytopes and the enumeration of proper graph colorings, nowhere-zero flows on graphs, magic squares and graphs, antimagic squares and graphs, compositions of an integer whose parts are partially distinct, and generalized latin squares. Our method is to generalize Ehrhart's theory of lattice-point counting to a convex polytope dissected by a hyperplane arrangement. We particularly develop the applications to graph and signed-graph coloring, compositions of an integer, and antimagic labellings.     

The homotopy type of the complement of a coordinate subspace arrangement

The homotopy type of the complement of a complex coordinate subspace arrangement is studied by utilising some connections between its topological and combinatorial structures. A family of arrangements for which the complement is homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres is described. One consequence is an application in commutative algebra: certain local rings are proved to be Golod, that is, all Massey products in their homology vanish.     

Two criteria to check whether ideals are direct sums of cyclically presented modules

A famous theorem of commutative algebra due to I. M. Isaacs states that “if every prime ideal of R is principal, then every ideal of R is principal”. Therefore, a natural question of this sort is “whether the same is true if one weakens this condition and studies rings in which ideals are direct sums of cyclically presented modules?” The goal of this paper is to answer this question in the case R is a commutative local ring. We obtain an analogue of Isaacs's theorem. In fact, we give two criteria to check whether every ideal of a commutative local ring R is a direct sum of cyclically presented modules, it suffices to test only the prime ideals or structure of the maximal ideal of R. As a consequence, we obtain: if R is a commutative local ring such that every prime ideal of R is a direct sum of cyclically presented R-modules, then R is a Noetherian ring. Finally, we describe the ideal structure of commutative local rings in which every ideal of R is a direct sum of cyclically presented R-modules.     

Generic initial ideals and graded Artinian-level algebras not having the Weak-Lefschetz Property

We find a sufficient condition that is not level based on a reduction number. In particular, we prove that a graded Artinian algebra of codimension 3 with Hilbert function cannot be level if h_d≤2d+3, and that there exists a level O-sequence of codimension 3 of type for h_d≥2d+k for k≥4. Furthermore, we show that is not level if , and also prove that any codimension 3 Artinian graded algebra A=R/I cannot be level if . In this case, the Hilbert function of A does not have to satisfy the condition h_d−1>h_d=h_d+1.Moreover, we show that every codimension n graded Artinian level algebra having the Weak-Lefschetz Property has a strictly unimodal Hilbert function having a growth condition on (h_d−1−h_d)≤(n−1)(h_d−h_d+1) for every d>θ where

h₀<h₁<<h_α==h_θ>>h_s−1>h_s.