Alexander duality has, in the past, made its way into commutative algebra through Stanley-Reisner rings of simplicial complexes. This has the disadvantage that one is limited to squarefree monomial ideals. The notion of Alexander duality is generalized here to arbitrary monomial ideals. It is shown how this duality is naturally expressed by Bass numbers, in their relations to the Betti numbers of a monomial ideal and its Alexander dual. Relative cohomological constructions on cellular complexes are shown to relate cellular free resolutions of a monomial ideal to free resolutions of its Alexander dual ideal. As an application, a new canonical resolution for monomial ideals is constructed.
For a pair $(P,Q)$ of finite posets the generators of the ideal $L(P,Q)$ correspond bijectively to the isotone maps from $P$ to $Q$. In this note we determine all pairs $(P,Q)$ for which the Alexander dual of $L(P,Q)$ coincides with $L(Q,P)$, up to a switch of the indices.
In this note, we study Serre's property $(S_i)$, and its relation to Alexander duality for monomial ideals in a polynomial ring over a field. We describe ideals that define the non-Cohen-Macaulay- and the non-$(S_i)$-loci of finitely generated modules over regular rings, and show that minimal prime ideals in these loci are homogeneous, in the graded case. We show that a square-free monomial ideal has property $(S_i)$ if and only if its Alexander dual has a linear resolution up to homological degree $i-1$. We prove that for square-free monomial ideals, having property $(S_2)$ is equivalent to b…
In this paper we study how prime filtrations and squarefree Stanley decompositions of squarefree modules over the polynomial ring and the exterior algebra behave with respect to Alexander duality.
Squarefree monomial ideals arising from finite meet-semilattices and their free resolutions are studied. For the squarefree monomial ideals corresponding to poset ideals in a distributive lattice the Alexander dual is computed.
A tetrahedral curve is a (usually nonreduced) curve in P^3 defined by an unmixed, height two ideal generated by monomials. We characterize when these curves are arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay by associating a graph to each curve and, using results from combinatorial commutative algebra and Alexander duality, relating the structure of the complementary graph to the Cohen-Macaulay property.
A net in $\mathbb{P}^2$ is a configuration of lines $\mathcal A$ and points $X$ satisfying certain incidence properties. Nets appear in a variety of settings, ranging from quasigroups to combinatorial design to classification of Kac-Moody algebras to cohomology jump loci of hyperplane arrangements. For a matroid $M$ and rank $r$, we associate a monomial ideal (a monomial variant of the Orlik-Solomon ideal) to the set of flats of $M$ of rank $\le r$. In the context of line arrangements in $\mathbb{P}^2$, applying Alexander duality to the resulting ideal yields insight into the combinatorial str…
Irreducible decomposition of monomial ideals has an increasing number of applications from biology to pure math. This paper presents the Slice Algorithm for computing irreducible decompositions, Alexander duals and socles of monomial ideals. The paper includes experiments showing good performance in practice.
A certain squarefree monomial ideal $H_P$ arising from a finite partially ordered set $P$ will be studied from viewpoints of both commutative algebra and combinatorics. First, it is proved that the defining ideal of the Rees algebra of $H_P$ possesses a quadratic Gröbner basis. Thus in particular all powers of $H_P$ have linear resolutions. Second, the minimal free graded resolution of $H_P$ will be constructed explicitly and a combinatorial formula to compute the Betti numbers of $H_P$ will be presented. Third, by using the fact that the Alexander dual of the simplicial complex $Δ$ whose Stan…
In this paper we study irreducible representations and symbolic Rees algebras of monomial ideals. Then we examine edge ideals associated to vertex-weighted oriented graphs. These are digraphs having no oriented cycles of length two with weights on the vertices. For a monomial ideal with no embedded primes we classify the normality of its symbolic Rees algebra in terms of its primary components. If the primary components of a monomial ideal are normal, we present a simple procedure to compute its symbolic Rees algebra using Hilbert bases, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for the equ…
We study Bass numbers of local cohomology modules supported on squarefree monomial ideals paying special attention to Lyubeznik numbers. We build a dictionary between local cohomology modules and minimal free resolutions that allow us to interpret Lyubeznik numbers as the obstruction to the acyclicity of the linear strands of the Alexander dual ideals. The methods we develop also help us to give a bound for the injective dimension of the local cohomology modules in terms of the dimension of the small support.
The study of the edge ideal $I(D_{G})$ of a weighted oriented graph $D_{G}$ with underlying graph $G$ started in the context of Reed-Muller type codes. We generalize a Cohen-Macaulay construction for $I(D_{G})$, which Villarreal gave for edge ideals of simple graphs. We use this construction to classify all the Cohen-Macaulay weighted oriented edge ideals, whose underlying graph is a cycle. We show that the conjecture on Cohen-Macaulayness of $I(D_{G})$, proposed by Pitones et al. (2019), holds for $I(D_{C_{n}})$, where $C_{n}$ denotes the cycle of length $n$. Miller generalized the concept of…
Lyubeznik introduced the concept of size of a monomial ideal and showed that the size of a monomial ideal increased by $1$ is a lower bound for its depth. We show that the size is also a lower bound for its Stanley depth. Applying Alexander duality we obtain upper bounds for the regularity and Stanley regularity of squarefree monomial ideals.
We apply Miller's theory on multigraded modules over a polynomial ring to the study of the Stanley depth of these modules. Several tools for Stanley's conjecture are developed, and a few partial answers are given. For example, we show that taking the Alexander duality twice (but with different "centers") is useful for this subject. Generalizing a result of Apel, we prove that Stanley's conjecture holds for the quotient by a cogeneric monomial ideal.
The Riemann-Roch theorem on a graph G is related to Alexander duality in combinatorial commutive algebra. We study the lattice ideal given by chip firing on G and the initial ideal whose standard monomials are the G-parking functions. When G is a saturated graph, these ideals are generic and the Scarf complex is a minimal free resolution. Otherwise, syzygies are obtained by degeneration. We also develop a self-contained Riemann-Roch theory for artinian monomial ideals.
We will define the Alexander duality for strongly stable ideals. More precisely, for a strongly stable ideal $I \subset \Bbbk[x_1, \ldots, x_n]$ with ${\rm deg}(\mathsf{m}) \le d$ for all $\mathsf{m} \in G(I)$, its dual $I^* \subset \Bbbk[y_1, \ldots, y_d]$ is a strongly stable ideal with ${\rm deg}(\mathsf{m}) \le n$ for all $\mathsf{m} \in G(I^*)$. This duality has been constructed by Fl$ø$ystad et al. in a different manner, so we emphasis applications here. For example, we will describe the Hilbert serieses of the local cohomologies $H_\mathfrak{m}^i(S/I)$ using the irreducible decompositio…
In this paper, basic properties of monomial difference ideals are studied. We prove the finitely generated property of well-mixed difference ideals generated by monomials. Furthermore, a finite prime decomposition of radical well-mixed monomial difference ideals is given. As a consequence, we prove that every strictly ascending chain of radical well-mixed monomial difference ideals in a difference polynomial ring is finite, which answers a question raised by E. Hrushovski in the monomial case. Moreover, the Alexander Duality for monomial ideals is generalized to the monomial case.
Monomial ideals which are generic with respect to either their generators or irreducible components have minimal free resolutions derived from simplicial complexes. For a generic monomial ideal, the associated primes satisfy a saturated chain condition, and the Cohen-Macaulay property implies shellability for both the Scarf complex and the Stanley-Reisner complex. Reverse lexicographic initial ideals of generic lattice ideals are generic. Cohen-Macaulayness for cogeneric ideals is characterized combinatorially; in the cogeneric case the Cohen-Macaulay type is greater than or equal to the numbe…
The aim of this paper is to study integer rounding properties of various systems of linear inequalities to gain insight about the algebraic properties of Rees algebras of monomial ideals and monomial subrings. We study the normality and Gorenstein property--as well as the canonical module and the a-invariant--of Rees algebras and subrings arising from systems with the integer rounding property. We relate the algebraic properties of Rees algebras and monomial subrings with integer rounding properties and present a duality theorem.
We present an algorithm to compute all $n$ nondominated points of a multicriteria discrete optimization problem with $d$ objectives using at most $\mathcal{O}(n^{\lfloor d/2 \rfloor})$ scalarizations. The method is similar to algorithms by Przybylski et al. (2010) and by Klamroth et al. (2015) with the same complexity. As a difference, our method employs a tropical convex hull computation, and it exploits a particular kind of duality which is special for the tropical cones arising. This duality can be seen as a generalization of the Alexander duality of monomial ideals.
We consider profunctors $f : P \promap Q$ between posets and introduce their {\em graph} and {\em ascent}. The profunctors $\Pro(P,Q)$ form themselves a poset, and we consider a partition $\cI \sqcup \cF$ of this into a down-set $\cI$ and up-set $\cF$, called a {\it cut}. To elements of $\cF$ we associate their graphs, and to elements of $\cI$ we associate their ascents. Our basic result is that this, suitable refined, preserves being a cut: We get a cut in the Boolean lattice of subsets of the underlying set of $Q \times P$. Cuts in finite Booleans lattices correspond precisely to finite simp…
Let $k$ be a field and $R=k[x_1,\ldots,x_n]/I=S/I$ a graded ring. Then $R$ has a $t$-linear resolution if $I$ is generated by homogeneous elements of degree $t$, and all higher syzygies are linear. Thus $R$ has a $t$-linear resolution if ${\rm Tor}^S_{i,j}(S/I,k)=0$ if $j\ne i+t-1$. For a simplicial complex $Δ$ on $[{\bf n}]=\{1,\ldots,n\}$ and a field $k$, the Stanley-Reisner ring $k[Δ]$ is $k[x_1,\ldots,x_n]/I$, where $I$ is generated by those squarefree monomials $x_{i_1}\cdots x_{i_k}$ for which $\{ i_1,\ldots,i_k\}$ does not belong to $Δ$. In \cite{Fr} the Stanley-Reisner rings with 2-lin…
Let $G$ be a finite simple graph with edge ideal $I(G)$. Let $J(G)$ denote the Alexander dual of $I(G)$. We show that a description of all induced cycles of odd length in $G$ is encoded in the associated primes of $J(G)^2$. This result forms the basis for a method to detect odd induced cycles of a graph via ideal operations, e.g., intersections, products and colon operations. Moreover, we get a simple algebraic criterion for determining whether a graph is perfect. We also show how to determine the existence of odd holes in a graph from the value of the arithmetic degree of $J(G)^2$.
We give a rigorous mathematical proof for the validity of the toric sheaf cohomology algorithm conjectured in the recent paper by R. Blumenhagen, B. Jurke, T. Rahn, and H. Roschy (arXiv:1003.5217). We actually prove not only the original algorithm but also a speed-up version of it. Our proof is independent from (in fact appeared earlier on the arXiv than) the proof by H. Roschy and T. Rahn (arXiv:1006.2392), and has several advantages such as being shorter and cleaner and can also settle the additional conjecture on "Serre duality for Betti numbers" which was raised but unresolved in arXiv:100…
Given an ascending chain $(I_n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ of $\Sym$-invariant squarefree monomial ideals, we study the corresponding chain of Alexander duals $(I_n^\vee)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$. Using a novel combinatorial tool, which we call \emph{avoidance up to symmetry}, we provide an explicit description of the minimal generating set up to symmetry in terms of the original generators. Combining this result with methods from discrete geometry, this enables us to show that the number of orbit generators of $I_n^\vee$ is given by a polynomial in $n$ for sufficiently large $n$. The same is true for the num…
We define a functor $\rr^\ast$ from the category of positively determined modules to the category of squarefree modules which plays the role of passing from a monomial ideal to its radical. By using this functor, we generalize several results on properties that are shared by a monomial ideal and its radical. Moreover, we study the connection of $\rr^\ast$ to the Alexander duality and Auslander-Reiten translate functor.
In this short note we introduce a notion of extremality for Betti numbers of a minimal free resolution, which can be seen as a refinement of the notion of Mumford-Castelnuovo regularity. We show that extremal Betti numbers of an arbitrary submodule of a free S-module are preserved when taking the generic initial module. We relate extremal multigraded Betti numbers in the minimal resolution of a square free monomial ideal with those of the monomial ideal corresponding to the Alexander dual simplicial complex and generalize theorems of Eagon-Reiner and Terai. As an application we give easy (alte…
A monomial ideal $I$ admits a Betti splitting $I=J+K$ if the Betti numbers of $I$ can be determined in terms of the Betti numbers of the ideals $J,K$ and $J \cap K$. Given a monomial ideal $I$, we prove that $I=J+K$ is a Betti splitting of $I$, provided $J$ and $K$ are componentwise linear, generalizing a result of Francisco, Hà and Van Tuyl. If $I$ has a linear resolution, the converse also holds. We apply this result recursively to the Alexander dual of vertex-decomposable, shellable and constructible simplicial complexes and to determine the graded Betti numbers of the defining ideal of thr…
For a reduced monomial ideal B in R=k[X_1,...,X_n], we write H^i_B(R) as the union of {Ext^i(R/B^[d],R)}_d, where {B^[d]}_d are the "Frobenius powers of B". We describe H^i_B(R)_p, for every p in Z^n, in the spirit of the Stanley-Reisner theory. As a first application we give an isomorphism Tor_i(B', k)_p\iso Ext^{|p|-i}(R/B,R)_{-p} for all p in {0,1}^n, where B' is the Alexander dual ideal of B. We deduce a canonical filtration of Ext^i(R/B,R) with succesive quotients of the form R/(X_{j_1},...,X_{j_i}) suitably shifted, the multiplicities being computed from the Betti numbers of B'. As a fin…
In this paper we give new upper bounds on the regularity of edge ideals whose resolutions are k-steps linear; surprisingly, the bounds are logarithmic in the number of variables. We also give various bounds for the projective dimension of such ideals, generalizing other recent results. By Alexander duality, our results also apply to unmixed square-free monomial ideals of codimension two. We also discuss and connect these results to more classical topics in commutative algebra.
We introduce the notion of a \emph{resolution supported on a poset}. When the poset is a CW-poset, i.e. the face poset of a regular CW-complex, we recover the notion of cellular resolution as introduced by Bayer and Sturmfels. Work of Reiner and Welker, and of Velasco, has shown that there are monomial ideals whose minimal free resolutions are not cellular, hence cannot be supported on any CW-poset. We show that for any monomial ideal there is a \emph{homology CW-poset} that supports a minimal free resolution of the ideal. This allows one to extend to every minimal resolution, essentially verb…
Every quotient R/I of a semigroup ring R by a radical monomial ideal I has a unique minimal injective-like resolution by direct sums of quotients of R modulo prime monomial ideals. The quotient R/I is Cohen-Macaulay if and only if every summand in cohomological degree $i$ has dimension exactly dim(R/I) - i. This Cohen-Macaulay characterization reduces to the Eagon-Reiner theorem by Alexander duality when R is a polynomial ring. The proof exploits a graded ring-theoretic generalization of the Zeeman spectral sequence, thereby also providing a combinatorial topological version for polyhedral cel…
Let $k$ be a field of characteristic zero and I an ideal defining an arrangement of linear subspaces in the affine space $A^n_k$. We compute the D-module theoretic characteristic cycle of the local cohomology modules $H^r_I(k[x_1,...,x_n])$ in terms of the poset defined by the arrangement. In case I is a monomial ideal, we relate the multiplicities of the characteristic cycle with the Betti numbers of the Alexander dual ideal of I, we also study some extension problems attached to the modules $H^r_I(k[x_1,...,x_n])$. If $k$ is the field of complex numbers we study the ubiquity of these local c…
Let $\mathfrak{S}_n$ be the set of all permutations of $[n]=\{1,\ldots,n\}$ and let $W$ be the subset consisting of permutations $σ\in \mathfrak{S}_n$ avoiding 132 and 312-patterns. The monomial ideal $I_W = \left\langle \mathbf{x}^σ = \prod_{i=1}^n x_i^{σ(i)} : σ\in W \right\rangle $ in the polynomial ring $R = k[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ over a field $k$ is called a hypercubic ideal in the article (Certain variants of multipermutohedron ideals, Proc. Indian Acad. Sci.(Math Sci. Vol. 126, No.4, (2016), 479-500). The Alexander dual $I_W^{[\mathbf{n}]}$ of $I_W$ with respect to $\mathbf{n}=(n,\ldots,n)$…
Let R=k[x_1,...,x_n] be a polynomial ring over a field k. Let J={j_1,...,j_t} be a subset of [n]={1,...,n}, and let m_J denote the ideal (x_{j_1},...,x_{j_t}) of R. Given subsets J_1,...,J_s of [n] and positive integers a_1,...,a_s, we study ideals of the form I=m_{J_1}^{a_1} \cap ... \cap m_{J_s}^{a_s}. These ideals arise naturally, for example, in the study of fat points, tetrahedral curves, and Alexander duality of squarefree monomial ideals. Our main focus is determining when ideals of this form are componentwise linear. Using polymatroidality, we prove that I is always componentwise linea…
Given a simplicial complex we associate to it a squarefree monomial ideal which we call the face ideal of the simplicial complex, and show that it has linear quotients. It turns out that its Alexander dual is a whisker complex. We apply this construction in particular to chain and antichain ideals of a finite partially ordered set. We also introduce so-called higher dimensional whisker complexes and show that their independence complexes are shellable.
For a finite subset $M\subset [x_1,\ldots,x_d]$ of monomials, we describe how to constructively obtain a monomial ideal $I\subseteq R = K[x_1,\ldots,x_d]$ such that the set of monomials in $\text{Soc}(I)\setminus I$ is precisely $M$, or such that $\overline{M}\subseteq R/I$ is a $K$-basis for the the socle of $R/I$. For a given $M$ we obtain a natural class of monomials $I$ with this property. This is done by using solely the lattice structure of the monoid $[x_1,\ldots,x_d]$. We then present some duality results by using anti-isomorphisms between upsets and downsets of $(\mathbb Z^d,\preceq)$…
In this paper, we study different polarizations of powers of the maximal ideal m^d, and polarizations of its related square-free version I_d. For n = 3, we show that every minimal free cellular resolution of m^d comes from a certain polarization of the ideal m^d. When I is a square-free ideal, we show that the Alexander dual of any polarization of I is a polarization of the Alexander dual ideal of I. We apply this theorem and study different polarizations of I_d and its Alexander dual I_{n-d+1} simultaneously. We do this by giving a combinatorial description of the polarizations, which has a n…
We prove a duality theorem for simplicial complexes arising from a combinatorial construction we define, which applies to the squarefree monomial complexes for Veronese ideals of projective spaces and weighted projective spaces. Our theorem yields a formula for the multigraded Betti numbers of these Veronese ideals in terms of the reduced homology groups of these complexes which is dual to one given by Bruns and Herzog. We apply this formula in several ways, including by giving an algorithm for finding the highest syzygy of such a Veronese ideal.
Let $I\subset K[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ be a zero-dimensional monomial ideal, and $Δ(I)$ be the simplicial complex whose Stanley--Reisner ideal is the polarization of $I$. It follows from a result of Soleyman Jahan that $Δ(I)$ is shellable. We give a new short proof of this fact by providing an explicit shelling. Moreover, we show that $Δ(I)$ is even vertex decomposable. The ideal $L(I)$, which is defined to be the Stanley--Reisner ideal of the Alexander dual of $Δ(I)$, has a linear resolution which is cellular and supported on a regular CW-complex. All powers of $L(I)$ have a linear resolution. We c…
A "squarefree module" over a polynomial ring $S = k[x_1, .., x_n]$ is a generalization of a Stanley-Reisner ring, and allows us to apply homological methods to the study of monomial ideals systematically. Let $Sq$ be the category of squarefree modules. Then the derived category $D^b(Sq)$ of $Sq$ has three duality functors which act on $D^b(Sq)$ just like three transpositions of the symmetric group $S_3$ (up to translation). This phenomenon is closely related to the Koszul dulaity (in particular, the Bernstein-Gel'fand-Gel'fand correspondence). We also study the local cohomology module $H_{I_Δ}…
On the category of bounded complexes of finitely generated free squarefree modules over the polynomial ring S, there is the standard duality functor D = Hom_S(-, omega_S) and the Alexander duality functor A. The composition AD is an endofunctor on this category, of order three up to translation. We consider complexes F of free squarefree modules such that both F, AD(F) and (AD)^2(F) are pure, when considered as singly graded complexes. We conjecture i) the existence of such triplets of complexes for given triplets of degree sequences, and ii) the uniqueness of their Betti numbers, up to scalar…
A square-free monomial ideal $I$ of $k[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ is said to be an $f$-ideal if the facet complex and non-face complex associated with $I$ have the same $f$-vector. We show that $I$ is an $f$-ideal if and only if its Newton complementary dual $\widehat{I}$ is also an $f$-ideal. Because of this duality, previous results about some classes of $f$-ideals can be extended to a much larger class of $f$-ideals. An interesting by-product of our work is an alternative formulation of the Kruskal-Katona theorem for $f$-vectors of simplicial complexes.
