This thesis deals with toric ideals associated with finite simple graphs. In particular we establish some results pertaining to the nature of the generators and syzygies of toric ideals associated with finite simple graphs. The first result dealt with in this thesis expands upon work by Favacchio, Hofscheier, Keiper, and Van Tuyl which states that for G, a graph obtained by "gluing" a graph H1 to a graph H2 along an induced subgraph, we can obtain the toric ideal associated to G from the toric ideals associated to H1 and H2 by taking their sum as ideals in the larger ring and saturating by a particular monomial f. Our contribution is to sharpen the result and show that instead of a saturation by f, we need only examine the colon ideal with f^2. The second result treated by this thesis pertains to graded Betti numbers of toric ideals of complete bipartite graphs. We show that by counting specific subgraphs one can explicitly compute a minimal set of generators for the corresponding toric ideals as well as minimal generating sets for the first two syzygy modules. Additionally we provide formulas for some of the graded Betti numbers. The final topic treated pertains to a relationship between the fundamental group the finite simple graph G and the associated toric ideal to G. It was shown by Villareal as well as Hibi and Ohsugi that the generators of a toric ideal associated to a finite simple graph correspond to the closed even walks of the graph G, thus linking algebraic properties to combinatorial ones. Therefore it is a natural question whether there is a relationship between the toric ideal associated to the graph G and the fundamental group of the graph G. We show, under the assumption that G is a bipartite graph with some additional assumptions, one can conceive of the set of binomials in the toric ideal with coprime terms, B(IG), as a group with an appropriately chosen operation ⋆ and establish a group isomorphism (B(IG), ⋆) ∼= π1(G)/H where H is a normal subgroup. We exploit this relationship further to obtain information about the generators of IG as well as bounds on the Betti numbers. We are also able to characterise all regular sequences and hence compute the depth of the toric ideal of G. We also use the framework to prove that IG = (⟨G⟩ : (e1 · · · em)^∞) where G is a set of binomials which correspond to a generating set of π1(G). / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Cette thèse est consacrée à l’étude des monoïdes plaxiques par une nouvelle approche utilisant des méthodes issues de la réécriture. Ces méthodes sont appliquées à des présentations de monoïdes plaxiques décrites en termes de tableaux de Young, de bases cristallines de Kashiwara et de modèle des chemins de Littelmann. On étudie le problème des syzygies pour la présentation de Knuth des monoïdes plaxiques. En utilisant la procédure de complétion homotopique basée sur les procédures de complétion de Squier et de Knuth–Bendix, on construit des présentations cohérentes de monoïdes plaxiques de type A. Une telle présentation cohérente étend la notion de présentation convergente d’un monoïde par une famille génératrice de syzygies, décrivant toutes les relations entre les relations. On explicite une présentation cohérente finie des monoïdes plaxiques de type A avec les générateurs colonnes. Cependant, cette présentation n’est pas minimale dans le sens que plusieurs de ses générateurs sont superflus. En appliquant la procédure de réduction homotopique, on réduit cette présentation en une présentation cohérente finie qui étend la présentation de Knuth, donnantainsi toutes les syzygies des relations de Knuth. D’une manière plus générale, on étudie des présentations de monoïdes plaxiques généralisés du point de vue de la réécriture. On construit des présentations convergentes finies de ces monoïdes en utilisant les chemins de Littelmann. De plus, on étudie ces présentations pour le type C en termes de bases cristallines de Kashiwara. En introduisant les générateurs colonnes admissibles, on construit une présentation convergente finie du monoïde plaxique de type C avec des relations explicites. Cette approche nous permettrait d’étudier le problème des syzygies des présentations de monoïdes plaxiques en tout type / This thesis focuses on the study of plactic monoids by a new approach using methods issued from rewriting theory. These methods are applied on presentations of plactic monoids given in terms of Young tableaux, Kashiwara’s crystal bases and Littelmann path model. We study the syzygy problem for the Knuth presentation of the plactic monoids. Using the homotopical completion procedure that extends Squier’s and Knuth–Bendix’s completions procedure, we construct coherent presentations of plactic monoids of type A. Such a coherent presentation extends the notion of a presentation of a monoid by a family of generating syzygies, taking into account all the relations among the relations. We make explicit a finite coherent presentation of plactic monoids of type A with the column generators. However, this presentation is not minimal in the sense that many of its generators are superfluous. After applying the homotopical reduction procedure on this presentation, we reduce it to a finite coherent one that extends the Knuth presentation, giving then all the syzygies of the Knuth relations. More generally, we deal with presentations of plactic monoids of any type from the rewriting theory perspective. We construct finite convergent presentations for these monoids in a general way using Littelmann paths. Moreover, we study the latter presentations in terms of Kashiwara’s crystal graphs for type C. By introducing the admissible column generators, we obtain a finite convergent presentation of the plactic monoid of type C with explicit relations. This approach should allow us to study the syzygy problem for the presentations of plactic monoids for any type