Rees algebras and polyhedral cones of ideals of vertex covers of perfect graphs (Q925305)

Let \(R=K[x_1,\dots ,x_n]\) be the polynomial ring over a field \(K\) in a set of indeterminates \(X=\{x_1,\dots ,x_n\}\). To each subset \(S\) of \(X\) one can associate its incidence (or characteristic) vector \(v\in {\{0,1\}}^n\) and the square-free monomial \(x^v=x_1^{v_1}\dots x_n^{v_n} \in R\). Let \(G\) be a simple graph with vertex set \(X\). One can view \(G\) as a subset of the set \({\mathcal P}_2(X)\) of the subsets of \(X\) with exactly two elements. The complement of \(G\) is the graph \(G^{\prime}= {\mathcal P}_2(X)\setminus G\). A clique of \(G\) is a subset \(S\) of \(X\) such that \({\mathcal P}_2(S)\subseteq G\). If \(S\) is a clique of \(G^{\prime}\) then \(X\setminus S\) is a vertex cover of \(G\). To the graph \(G\) one can associate two square-free monomial ideals of \(R\). The first one is the edge ideal \(I\) generated by the monomial \(x_ix_j\) with \(\{x_i,x_j\}\in G\). The second one is the ideal \(J\) generated by the monomials \(x^v\), with \(v\) the incidence vector of a vertex cover of \(G\). Now, the graph \(G\) is perfect if, for every subgraph \(H\) of \(G\), the minimum number of colours needed to colour the vertices of \(H\) such that any two adjacent vertices have different colours equals the maximum number of elements of a clique of \(H\). The perfectness of \(G\) has a characterization in terms of the convex hull in \({\mathbb R}^n\) of the incidence vectors of the cliques of \(G^{\prime}\). This characterization can be found in \textit{B. Korte} and \textit{J. Vygen} [Combinatorial optimization. Theory and algorithms (Algorithms and Combinatorics 21) (Springer Verlag, New York) (2000; Zbl 0953.90052)]. In the paper under review, the author proves that if the graph \(G\) is perfect then the Rees algebra \(R[Jt]=R\oplus Jt\oplus \cdots \oplus J^it^i\oplus \cdots \subset R[t]\) is a normal domain and it is Gorenstein if, moreover, \(G\) is unmixed. The proof uses techniques of combinatorial optimization and the fact that the integral closure of \(R[Jt]\) in its field of fractions can be described in terms of a polyhedral cone \({\mathbb R}_+(J)\subset {\mathbb R}^{n+1}\) called the Rees cone. The author also describes the Simis cone associated to the edge ideal \(I\) of the perfect graph \(G\) and deduces that the symbolic Rees algebra \(R_s(I)=R\oplus I^{(1)}t\oplus \cdots \oplus I^{(i)}t^i\oplus \cdots \subset R[t]\) equals \(K[\{x^vt^r\;| \;v\) incidence vector of a clique of \(G\) with \(r+1\) elements\(\}]\). The set of minimal generators as a \(K\)-algebra of the symbolic Rees algebra \(R_s(J)\) has been described by \textit{J. Herzog, T. Hibi} and \textit{N. V. Trung} [Adv. Math. 210, No. 1, 304--322 (2007; Zbl 1112.13006)].