Betti numbers of Stanley-Reisner rings determine hierarchical Markov degrees (Q2376294)

To every simplicial complex \(\Delta\) on \(m\) vertices the following two ideals can be associated. The first one is the Stanley-Reisner ideal \(I_{\Delta} \subseteq K[x_1,\dots,x_m]\), i.e. the squarefree monomial ideal generated by the minimal non-faces of \(\Delta\). The other one is a binomial ideal which arise naturally in algebraic statistics. Namely the toric ideal \(I_{M(\Delta)}\) of the facet subring of \(\Delta\), whose generators give a Markov basis for the hierarchical model defined by \(\Delta\). The main result of this paper shows that the syzygies of \(I_{\Delta}\) predict degrees of minimal generators of \(I_{M(\Delta)}\). More precisely, it is proved that if the Betti diagram of the minimal free resolution of \(K[x_1,\dots,x_m]/I_{\Delta}\) has a non-zero entry in the \(j\)th row, then the toric ideal \(I_{M(\Delta)}\) has a minimal generator with degree \(2^{j}\).