Simple Graphs and Their Binomial Edge Ideals

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This Demonstration illustrates the relationship between combinatorial properties of a simple graph and its binomial edge ideal (see the Details section for definitions). In particular, it can be used to verify that a graph is closed (for a given ordering of vertices) if and only if the Groebner basis of its edge ideal consists of quadratic polynomials. By starting with a random graph that is not closed and adding suitable edges until the Groebner basis consists only of quadratic polynomials, you can find the closure of the graph, that is, the minimal closed graph containing the given graph. Alternatively, you can start with a complete graph (which is always closed) and remove edges (or vertices) to obtain non-closed graphs.
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Contributed by: Andrzej Kozlowski (December 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
Snapshots
Details
Let be a simple graph on the vertex set
We say that the graph is closed with respect to the given ordering of vertices if
satisfies the condition that for any pair of edges
and
with
and
, the edge
is an edge of
and for any pair of edges
and
with
and
the edge
is an edge of
.
For a field , let
be the ring of polynomials in
variables. The binomial edge ideal
is the ideal generated by the elements
where
and
is an edge of
Binomial edge ideals of graphs were introduced in [1] and play a role in the study of conditional independence statements and the subject of algebraic statistics [2]. In this Demonstration we illustrate theorem 1.1 of (1), which states that a simple graph
is closed (for a given ordering) if and only if the reduced Gröbner basis of its binomial edge ideal
with respect to the lexicographic ordering on
induced by
is quadratic (and generated by
).
References
[1] J. Herzog, T. Hibi, F. Hreinsdóttir, F. Kahle, and T. Rauh, "Binomial Edge Ideals and Conditional Independence Statements," arXiv:0909.4717, 2009.
[2] M. Drton, B. Sturmfels, and S. Sullivant, Lectures on Algebraic Statistics, Vol. 39, Berlin: Springer, 2009.
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