Specializations of multigradings and the arithmetical rank of lattice ideals

Abstract

In this article we study specializations of multigradings and apply them to the problem of the computation of the arithmetical rank of a lattice ideal $I_{L_{\mathcal{G}}} \subset K[x_{1},...,x_{n}]$. The arithmetical rank of $I_{L_{\mathcal{G}}}$ equals the $\mathcal{F}$-homogeneous arithmetical rank of $I_{L_{\mathcal{G}}}$, for an appropriate specialization $\mathcal{F}$ of $\mathcal{G}$. To the lattice ideal $I_{L_{\mathcal{G}}}$ and every specialization $\mathcal{F}$ of $\mathcal{G}$ we associate a simplicial complex. We prove that combinatorial invariants of the simplicial complex provide lower bounds for the $\mathcal{F}$-homogeneous arithmetical rank of $I_{L_{\mathcal{G}}}$.