Tuesday, April 14th, 2026
2:00pm – 2:50pm
Stratton Hall 311
Speaker: Jane Coons, WPI
Title: Toric Ideals and Markov Bases
Abstract: A toric ideal is the kernel of a monomial map. In this talk, we introduce toric ideals and some of their basic properties. In particular, we illustrate how you can use the integer matrix that defines the monomial map to learn about a toric ideal. We introduce the concept of a Markov basis for the integer kernel of this matrix and present the Fundamental Theorem of Markov Bases, which connects Markov bases and ideal generating sets.