Strongly Koszul edge rings (Q255672)

This paper classifies finite simple graphs whose edge rings are strongly Koszul. Moreover, the authors show that the associated toric ideal possesses a quadratic Gröbner basis. Given a graded algebra \(R\) over a field \(K\) with maximal ideal \(\mathfrak{m}=R_+\), \(R\) is \textit{Koszul} if \(R/\mathfrak{m}\) has a linear resolution as an \(R\)-module. It is \textit{strongly Koszul} if \(\mathfrak{m}\) has a minimal system of generators \(\{u_1,\ldots,u_t\}\) satisfying the condition: for all subsequences \(u_{i_1},\ldots u_{i_r}\) of \(\{u_1,\ldots,u_t\}\) (\(i_1\leq \cdots\leq i_r\)) and for all \(j=1,\ldots,r-1\), the colon ideal \(\langle u_{i_1},\ldots, u_{i_{j-1}} \rangle:u_{i_j}\) is generated by a subset of elements of \(\{u_1,\ldots,u_t\}\). The notion of a strongly Koszul algebra was introduced in [\textit{J. Herzog} et al., Math. Scand. 86, No. 2, 161--178 (2000; Zbl 1061.13008)] and explored with particularly nice results in the context of semigroup rings. The semigroup ring considered in this paper is the \textit{edge ring} of a graph \(G\). If \(G\) has vertices \(V=\{1,\ldots,n\}\), the edge ring of \(G\) is the subring of \(K[X_1,\ldots,X_n]\) generated by the monomials \(X_iX_j\) whenever \(\{i,j\}\) is an edge of \(G\). Suppose \(G\) has edges \(\{e_1,\ldots,e_d\}\) and for an edge \(\{i,j\}\in E(G)\) write \(X^e\) for \(X_iX_j\). Then there is a natural map from \(S=K[Y_1,\ldots,Y_d]\) to \(K[X_1,\ldots,X_n]\) given by \(Y_i\rightarrow X^{e_i}\). The kernel of this map is the \textit{toric ideal} \(I_G\) of \(G\). This presents the edge ring as the quotient \(S/I_G\) of a polynomial ring. It is well known that if \(R=S/I\) is Koszul, then \(I\) is generated by quadrics. If \(I\) has a quadratic Gröbner basis, then \(R=S/I\) is Koszul, but the converse does not necessarily hold. The main result of this paper (Theorem 3.8) is a classification of all simple connected graphs with strongly Koszul edge ring. As a corollary of this classification, it is shown that the toric ideal of a graph with strongly Koszul edge ring has a quadratic Gröbner basis.