Robust toric ideals

Abstract

We call an ideal in a polynomial ring robust if it can be minimally generated by a universal Gröbner basis. In this paper we show that robust toric ideals generated by quadrics are essentially determinantal. We then discuss two possible generalizations to higher degree, providing a tight classification for determinantal ideals, and a counterexample to a natural extension for Lawrence ideals. We close with a discussion of robustness of higher Betti numbers.