On the socle of Artinian algebras associated with graphs (Q6185351)

Given any simple, undirected graph \(G\) with vertex set \(V_G\) and edge set \(E_G\), one can consider the polynomial ring \(K[E_G] := K[t_e \mid e \in E_G]\) (where \(K\) is any field). If \(J \subseteq E_G\), then we denote by \(\mathbf{t}_J\) the product of all the variables which identify edges in \(J\). In this paper, the authors study a special quotient of \(K[E_G]\) with a focus on Eulerian binomials. Let \(C\) be a subset of the edges of \(G\) and \(v\) be a vertex of \(G\). Then we define the \textit{degree} of \(v\) in \(C\) to be \[\deg_C(v) = \sum_{e \in C} |\{v\} \cap e|.\] We say that \(C\) is \textit{Eulerian} if \(\deg_C(v)\) is even for every vertex \(v\). Given non-empty sets \(J, L\) of edges of \(G\), we say that the binomial \(\mathbf{t}_J - \mathbf{t}_L\) is \textit{Eulerian} if \(J \cap L = \emptyset\), \(|J| = |L|\) and \(C = J \cup L\) is Eulerian. We denote by \(\mathcal{E}\) the set of all Eulerian binomials. The main focus of this paper is the \textit{Eulerian Artinian algebra} associated with the graph \(G\), namely \(A(G) = K[E_G]/I(G)\), where \(I(G) = (\mathcal{E} \cup \{t_e^2 \mid e \in E_G\})\). The authors prove that \textbf{Proposition:} Given an ordering of \(E_G\), the set \(\mathcal{E} \cup \{t_e^2 \mid e \in E_G\}\) is a Grobner basis for \(I(G)\) with respect to the graded reverse lexicographic order on \(K[E_G]\). By considering reduced parity joins of the graph \(G\), the authors are then in a position to find a \(K\)-basis of \(A(G)\). The second half of the paper involves a study of the socle of \(A(G)\). Given any standard graded polynomial ring \(R\) over \(K\) with irrelevant ideal \(N\) and graded module \(M\) over \(R\), the \textit{socle} of \(M\) is defined to be \(\{u \in M \mid Nu = (0)\}\). We call the degrees of the minimal generators of the socle the \textit{socle degrees} of \(M\). It is well-known that a standard Artinian graded algebra is Gorenstein if and only if its socle has dimension 1 over \(K\). We call the degrees of the minimal generators of the socle the \textit{socle degrees} of \(M\). The authors use properties of the graph \(G\) to find the socle degrees of \(A(G)\) in terms of reduced parity joins of the graph. In the case that \(G\) is a bipartite graph, the authors determine when \(A(G)\) is Gorenstein. The paper concludes with applications to finding \(h\)-vectors and socle degrees for \(A(G)\) when \(G\) is either a complete graph or complete bipartite graph.