Toric initial ideals of \(\Delta\)-normal configurations: Cohen-Macaulayness and degree bounds (Q1781817)

In this paper the authors consider affine normal toric varieties, given by a cone having a set of extreme rays \({ \mathcal A}\). The main purpose is to study the following two conjectures of Sturmfels: Question 1. If the variety defined by \({ \mathcal A}\) is normal, is there some order such the monomial initial ideal of the toric ideal \(I_{{ \mathcal A}}\) is Cohen-Macaulay? Conjecture 2. If \(I_{{ \mathcal A}}\) is an homogeneous ideal then \(I_{{ \mathcal A}}\) has a Gröbner basis whose elements have degree at most \(d=\dim (\text{cone}( { \mathcal A}))\). The authors introduce a new condition that they call \(\Delta\)-normal configuration and find the following answers: Theorem 3.1. Let \(I_{{ \mathcal A}}\) be a \(\Delta\)-normal configuration, then there exist a term order such that in\(_{I_{{ \mathcal A}}}\) is Cohen-Macaulay. Theorem 4.1. Let \(I_{{ \mathcal A}}\) be a \(\Delta\)-normal configuration, then there exist a term order such that the Gröbner basis of \(I_{{ \mathcal A}}\) consist of binomials of degree at most \(d=\dim (\text{cone}( { \mathcal A}))\).