Normal toric ideals of low codimension (Q1017682)

Let \(A\) be a non-negative integer \(d\times n\)-matrix of rank \(d\), \(C(A)\) the cone in \(\mathbb{R}^d\) spanned by the columns of \(A\) and \(I_A\) the toric ideal associated to \(A\). \(I_A\) is called normal if \(C(A)\cap\mathbb{Z}A=\mathbb{N}A\) (the columns of \(A\) form a Hilbert basis). It is proved that every normal toric ideal \(I_A\) of codimension \(2(=n-d)\) has a squarefree initial ideal and the correspondong reduced Gröbner basis minimally generates \(I_A\). An algorithm (of polynomial running time in \(n\)) is given to decide whether \(I_A\) is normal if \(\text{codim} (I_A)=n-d\) is fixed.