We show that the ideal generated by maximal minors (i.e., $(k+1)$-minors) of a $(k+1) times n$ Vandermonde matrix is radical and Cohen-Macaulay. Note that this ideal is generated by all Specht polynomials with shape $(n-k,1,...,1)$.
Let I be either the ideal of maximal minors or the ideal of 2-minors of a row graded or column graded matrix of linear forms L. In two previous papers we showed that I is a Cartwright-Sturmfels ideal, that is, the multigraded generic initial ideal gin(I) of I is radical (and essentially independent of the term order chosen). In this paper we describe generators and prime decomposition of gin(I) in terms of data related to the linear dependences among the row or columns of the submatrices of L. In the case of 2-minors we also give a closed formula for its multigraded Hilbert series.
We show that a determinantal ideal generated by $t$-minors does not contain any nonzero polynomials with $t!/2$ or fewer terms. Geometrically this means that any nonzero polynomial vanishing on all matrices of rank at most $t-1$ has more than $t!/2$ terms.
Given any equigenerated monomial ideal $I$ with the property that the defining ideal $J$ of the fiber cone $ F(I)$ of $I$ is generated by quadratic binomials, we introduce a matrix such that the set of its binomial $2$-minors is a generating set of $J$. In this way, we characterize the fiber cone of sortable and Freiman ideals.
Motivated by questions in algebra and combinatorics we study two ideals associated to a simple graph G: --> the Lovasz-Saks-Schrijver ideal defining the d-dimensional orthogonal representations of the graph complementary to G and --> the determinantal ideal of the (d+1)-minors of a generic symmetric with 0s in positions prescribed by the graph G. In characteristic 0 these two ideals turns out to be closely related and algebraic properties such as being radical, prime or a complete intersection transfer from the Lovasz-Saks-Schrijver ideal to the determinantal ideal. For Lovasz-Saks-Schrijver ideals we link these properties to combinatorial properties of G and show that they always hold for d large enough. For specific classes of graph, such a forests, we can give a complete picture and classify the radical, prime and complete intersection Lovasz-Saks-Schrijver ideals.
In this paper we characterize the componentwise lexsegment ideals which are componentwise linear and the lexsegment ideals generated in one degree which are Gotzmann.