Geometrically vertex decomposable star configurations

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to determine how the family of ideals of star configurations intersects with the class of geometrically vertex decomposable ideals. The main result of this paper shows that the answer is subtle since the geometrically vertex decomposability property of an ideal is not invariant under a linear change of variables, and thus the answer will depend upon the choice of the linear forms that define the ideal of the star configuration. We also show that the ideal of a star configuration is a Knutson ideal precisely when it is a geometrically vertex decomposable ideal.