A note on the critical ideals of a cycle (Q2675866)

Critical ideals of a graph \(G\) which are the determinantal ideals of its generalized Laplacian matrix were first introduced by \textit{H. Corrales} and \textit{C. E. Valencia} [Linear Algebra Appl. 439, No. 12, 3870--3892 (2013; Zbl 1295.13028)], as a generalization of the critical group. Then it was shown that critical ideals are also closely related to other properties of the graph, such as the clique number and the zero forcing number. In this note, the authors give a simple proof of Theorem 4.13 proved in the above stated paper, which gives a Gröbner basis of the first nontrivial critical ideal of a cycle. Also as applications explicit expressions for the characteristic ideals of a cycle and the critical groups of a family of thick wheels are obtained.