Quadratic Gr\"obner bases for cut ideals of cycles and ring graphs

Abstract

Let $C_n$ be the cycle of length $n\ge3$ and let $I_{C_n}$ be its cut ideal. We show that $I_{C_n}$ has a quadratic Gr\"obner basis with respect to an explicit weight order. Since the defining configuration consists of $(0,1)$-vectors, the initial monomials of such a basis are automatically squarefree. As the cut polytope of a cycle is the parity polytope, the result gives a regular unimodular flag triangulation of this classical polytope. Together with the known tree case and the clique-sum theorem for cut ideals, the cycle result also yields a quadratic Gr\"obner basis for the cut ideal of every connected ring graph with at least one edge, thereby supplying the missing cycle input and establishing the result for connected ring graphs.