Finite Gröbner bases in infinite dimensional polynomial rings and applications (Q655333)

The present paper introduces the theory of monoidal Gröbner bases, which generalizes the usual notion in a polynomial ring and allows for a description of Gröbner bases of ideals that are stable under the action of a monoid. The main motivation of this theory is to propose a general framework for proving finiteness theorems in rings with a monoid action. Section 2 of the paper develops a general theory of Gröbner bases for certain modules over rings. The main finiteness results are Theorem 2.12 and Theorem 2.19, both relying on the property that \(P\)-divisibility is a well ordering for the monoid \(P\), where \(P\) is a monoid of endomorphisms acting on a semigroup ring \(\mathbb{K}[Q]\). Section 3 of the paper applies the abstract theory from Section 2 to specific examples that make frequent appearances in applications. Section 4 contains an application to finiteness theorems for Markov bases in algebraic statistics. In this section the authors prove (Theorem 4.7) the independent set conjecture of \textit{S. Hosten} and \textit{S. Sullivant} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 114, No. 2, 311--321 (2007; Zbl 1111.62053)]. The paper ends with a discussion of open questions and problems, in particular about the computational aspects of the theory introduced in Section 2.