Alexander Duality

by:Adrian Muresan
Introduction
In the study of Comutative algebras it is often very useful to create a dictionary between
the Geometric and the Algebraic interpretations of various objects. Consider for example a
simplicial complex in n dimensions. Within the study of this highly geometric object one
often wants to study its dual. Given a complex one can exchange the faces for verticees
and verticees for faces in order to see what the dual of this object is.

In this paper we will be discussing Alexander duality, the algebraic analog of this
operation. Recall that we can identify the faces of a complex with a Monomial ideal in
K[x1 , ...xn ]. More specifically, we can identify the verticees of this object with the minimal
generators of an ideal, and the faces with the irreducible decomposition of the ideal.
Algebraically then the Alexander duality creates a correspondence between the irreducible
decomposition of an ideal and it’s minimal generators. This correspondence is easy to
seewhen we consider the cube as an example (See Fig 1).

Figure 1. [3]

The fact that the coordinates in the above example are squarefree, in other words they are
all 0 or 1, makes the duality is easy to see. One can easily check that the dual of the dual is
the original, as is generally hoped and desired. In this paper we will develop the theory for
arbitrary complexes and not just simple complexes, and show the the duality does indeed
still hold.

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 The Geometry
When looking at the geometry of a space it is ofen very useful to find some quantities
which encapsulate it’s topology. One such valuation are the Betti numbers. Inmformaly
the k th Betti number counts the number of k dimentional uncomescted surfaces in our
space.[4] This seems to be a rather confusing definition but we can shed some light on it by
using an example. Take for example a torus (See Fig 2.)

A torus has one 1-dimentional disconected component, the shell covering it’s surface. To
see this is in one peice one can cut a torus and see that it unfolds into a rectangle. This
means that the first Betti number, which can be interpreted to be the number of connected
components and denote by b0 , is 1. Similarly b1 counts the number of 2 dimentional "gaps"
in the surface. For the torus we can see there are two such gaps, one in the very center of
the object and one in on the inside of the surface, hence b1 = 2. Lastly, as a torus is a 3
dimentional object, we will consider the number of 3-dimentional "holes" in the shape.
There is only one, which is the inside of the torus, hence b2 = 1. This shows us that the
Betti numbers for the torus are 1,2,1.

Figure 2 (Image obtained from Wikipedia and rendered by POV-Ray)

Definition 1. Let C n (X, F) be the abelian group of all function from Xn to F. Further, let
dn be a homomorphism from C n (X, F) to C n+1 (X, F)
Definition 2. Give a topological space X, its k th homology group
Hk (X, F) = ker(dn )/im(dn−1 ).[5] In particular if the chain constructed from the C n (X, F)
is exact we have that Hk (X, F)=0.
It is interesting to note that
Definition 3. Formaly we can then define the k th Betti number of a space to be the vector
space dimention of Hk (X, F) over F.
Though the proof of this fact is outside the purview of this paper, Using the Alexander
duality one can show that given a n-dimentional space V and simplex X in V we have that
bk (X, F) = bn−k−1 (X, F). This fact gives an intuition for our definition of α \ β, where
α, β ∈ Nn , later on.

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 The Algebra
Let us now take a look at how the Alexander duality behaves from the point of view of
purely algebraic operations. In this section we will generalise the theory to consider all
monomial ideals and no just square free ones.

Notation: For ease of comunication wherever the symbol xα apears it is to be read as a

monomial in a polynomial ring S:=K[x1 , ..., xn ], where x is the vector [x1 ,...,xn ] and
Yn
α:=[α1 ,...,αn ] is a vector in Nn . Specifically xα = xαi i
i=1

Example 1. Let S=K[x1 , x2 , x3 ] and α = [4, 2, 5] ∈ N3 . Then we have xα = x41 x22 x53 .

Definition 1. A monomial ideal called irreducible if it is generated by powers of

variables.(i.e. I=hxα i for some α ∈ Nn )

Often a irreducible ideal I is denoted by mα where mα := hxαi i |αi ≥ 1i. An irreducible

decomposition of an ideal I expresses the ideal as a intersection of irreducible ideals.
(i.e. I=mα1 ∩...∩mαr where each of the αi are vectors in Nn )

Such a deconposition is called irredundant if each mαi is necesary in the decomposition.

As the word necesary is possibly hard to interpret we will formalize this concept by
requiring that mαi 6⊇ ∩nj=1,j6=i mαj ∀1 ≤ i ≤r. Note that if if mαi ⊇ ∩nj=1,j6=i mαj for some
1≤ i ≤ r then mα1 ∩ ... ∩ mαr =∩nj=1,j6=i mαj , in this sense mαi is not necesary in the
decomposition of I.

Example 2. Let I=hxyi ⊂ K[x, y]. Then its irredundant decomposition would be
I=hxi ∩ hyi

Lemma 1. If I is a monomial idean in S:=K[x1 , ..., xn ], and xu a minimal generator of I

such that xu = xv xw where xv and xw are coprime, then I=(I + hxv i) ∩ (I + hxw i).

Proof. Note that for any ideals I and J we have I⊆ I+J. Thus I⊆ I + hxv i and
I⊆ I + hxw i, and so I⊆ (I + hxv i) ∩ (I + hxw i). Assume f ∈ (I + hxv i) ∩ (I + hxw i), then
f = g1 + h1 xv = g2 + h2 xw where gi ∈I and hi ∈S for i∈{1,2}.

Since 0∈I for any ideal we have that 0=f − f = g1 − g2 + h1 xv − h2 xw ∈ textbf I. Since any
diffrence of polynomials in an ideal is still in the ideal this implies that h1 xv − h2 xw ∈ I.
Recall that since I is a monomial ideal a function f is in I if and only if every monomial in
f is divisible by a minimal generator of I. Hence every monomial in h1 xv − h2 xw is divisible
by a minimal generator of I. Note if c1 xr is a monomial in h1 xv then if c2 xr , where c2 is
any constant, is not a monomial in h2 xw then c1 xr is a monomial in h1 xv − h2 xw and so is
divisible by a minimal generator of I. If, however, c2 xr is alos a monomial in h2 xw then
xw | xr and xv | xr therefore xu = xv xw | xr and so xr is divisible by a minimal generator of
I and so xr is in I. Therefore every monomial in h1 xv is divisible by some minimal generator

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of I, and so h1 xv and by extension g1 + h1 xv = f ∈ I. Therefore I⊆ I + hxv i and I⊆ I, and
having shown two-sided containment we conclude I=(I + hxv i) ∩ (I + hxw i) as desired.

Definition 2. Let α = [α1 , ..., αn ] and β = [β1 , ..., βn ] be two vectors in Nn such that
βi ≤ αi ∀ 1≤ i ≤ n. Then we will say β  α and define α \ β coordinatewise by:

α1 + 1 − βi if βi ≥1
αi \ βi =
0 if βi =0

Example 3. Letting α = [3, 6, 2, 1, 4] and β = [2, 1, 0, 1, 2] we get α \ β = [4, 6, 0, 1, 3]

Theorem 1. Every monomial ideal has a irreducible decompasition.

Proof. Let I be a monomial ideal, and let xu be a minimal generator of I such that at least
two of the ui are non zero. This assumption is justified as if no such xu existed every
minimal generator of I would be a pure power and as such I would already be irreducible.
Since there are at least two non zero entries in the vector u we can write xu = xv1 xv2 where
gcd(xv1 , xv2 )=1.

An algorithmic way to create such vectors would to be let w be a vector with zeros in every
slot except for a 1 in the ith slot, where ui 6= 0. Let v1 = u \ w and v2 = u − v1 . Using this
construction the vector v1 has 0’s in every slot except the ith slot where it has ui , hecne v2
has a 0 in the ith slot. Therefore xv1 = xui i and xi - xv2 and so gcd(xv1 , xv2 )=1 as desired.

Now we can decompose I into (I + hxv i) ∩ (I + hxw i) as per Lemma 1.. Now consider each
of the two ideals you are intersecting and repeat this procedure. If you cannot find a
monomial xu with the property above then this ideal in irreducible and we move to the
next. Since there are finitely many variables, there can be a finite number of minimal
generators and as such this process will eventually terminate. Once it does we have created
a irreducible decomposition.

Definition 3. Let I be a monomial ideal. The Alexander dual of I with respect to a basis
α is denoted I[α] and is defined by:

I[α] := {mα\β |xβ is a minimal generator of I } [3]

T

Example 4. Let α = [5, 7, 2, 4] and I=hx41 x32 , x52 x34 , x41 x23 i ⊂ K[x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ]

Then I[α] = hx21 , x52 i ∩ hx32 , x24 i ∩ hx21 , x3 i = hx21 x32 , x21 x24 , x52 x3 i

Note that in computing the intersection of ideals one uses the fact that at least one
minimal generator of each ideal must divide every generator of the intersection.

Lemma 2. Given a monomial ideal I, if all the minimal generators of I divide xα and if
β  α then xβ 6∈ I if and only if xa−β ∈ I[α] .[3]

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Proof. Let I=hxr1 , ..., xrm i. If ri  β for some 1 ≤ i ≤ m then xri | xβ and so xβ ∈ I.
Hence, xβ 6∈ I if and only if ri 6 β ∀ 1 ≤ i ≤ m, which is equivalent to stateing that
alpha − β 6 α − ri . We can hence determine that for each i there is some j such that the
j th coordinate in α − β is at least equal to the j th coordinate of α − ri + 1. Ths means that
(α−r +1)
xj i j | xα−β ,which is equivalent to stateing that xα−β ∈ mα+1−ri . Since this is true for
every i, we now have that xα − β ∈ ∩m i=1 m
α+1−ri
. But α + 1 − ri = α \ ri and so
m
∩i=1 m α+1−ri
= I . And so we have that x 6∈ I if and only if xa−b ∈ I[α] as desired.
[α] β

Theorem 2. Let I be a monomial ideal in the polynomial ring S:=K[x1 , ..., xn ]. If all the
minimal generators of I divide xα , then we have both that all minimal generators of I [α]
divide xα and moreover (I[α] )[α] =I [3]

Proof. Let I=< xr1 , ..., xrm >. Since all the minimal generators of I divide xα , we can
apply Lemma 2. Hence we have that xb ∈ I if and only if xα−b 6∈ I[α] ∀ b  α.
αi +1−rj
Note that by construction the ireducible components of I[α] are of the form xi i
where
r α α i +1−r ji
1 ≤ i ≤ n and 1 ≤ j ≤ m. As rji ≤ αi since all the xj | x , we have that each xi | xα .
Since I[α] = ∩mj=1 m
α\rj
all the minimum generators of I[α] are the lowest common multiples
αi +1−rji
of the xi and as such all the minimal generators of I[α] divide xα . This allows us to
apply Lemma 2 again to obtain that xc 6∈ I[α] if and only if xα−c ∈ (I[α] )[α] ∀ c  α.

Note that since xrj | xα ∀ j we have that rj  α, and therefore xrj ∈ I if and only if
xα−rj 6∈ I[α] ∀ j. But α − rj  α and α − (α − rj ) = rj , and so we have that xα−rj 6∈ I[α] if
and only if xrj ∈ (I[α] )[α] ∀ j. and Hence xrj ∈ I if and only if xrj ∈ (I[α] )[α] . Thus I=(I[α] )[α]
as desired.

Example 5. Let us take the same ideal and vector as in Example 4. First we need to
compute the irreducible decomposition of I. Let us apply the algorithm in Lemma 1.

I = (hx41 x32 , x52 x34 , x41 x23 i + hx41 i) ∩ (hx41 x32 , x52 x34 , x41 x23 i + hx32 i) = hx41 , x52 x34 i ∩ hx32 , x41 x23 i
= ((hx41 , x52 x34 i + hx52 i) ∩ (hx41 , x52 x34 i + hx34 i)) ∩ ((hx32 , x41 x23 i + hx41 i) ∩ (hx32 , x41 x23 i + hx23 i))
= hx41 , x52 i ∩ hx41 , x34 i ∩ hx41 , x32 i ∩ hx32 , x23 i = hx41 , x52 i ∩ hx41 , x34 i ∩ hx32 , x23 i

Now we will compute (I[α] )[α] , as per Definition 3, using the minimal generating set we
computed for I[α] in Example 4.

(I[α] )[α] = hx41 , x52 i ∩ hx41 , x34 i ∩ hx32 , x23 i

And so we see that I = (I[α] )[α] , as we showed it would be in the previous theorem.

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Theorem 3. If all minimal generators of I divide xα , then I has a unique irredundant
irreducible decomposition given by:

I = {mα\β | xβ is a minimal generator of I[α] }

T

We also, equivalently, have that the Alexander dual of I is given by minimal generators as:

I[α] = hxα\β |mβ is an irreducible component of Ii

Proof. Note first that by Theorem 2 the intersection above is equal to I. Assume this is
not irredundant. Hence there is some mα\β1 and mα\β2 such that mα\β2 ⊆ mα\β1 . But this is
true if and only if α \ β1i ≤ α \ β2i if α \ β2i ≥ 1, and α \ β1i = α \ β2i if α \ β2i = 0. This
implies that αi − β2i ≥ αi − β1i and hence β2i ≤ β1i ∀ i and so xβ2 |xβ1 thus contradicting
the minimality of the generators of I[α] .

Let I = ∩β∈B mβ be an irredundant decomposition of I, where B⊆ Nn . And if i 6= j then by

irredundancy mbi 6⊆ mbj , and by the argument above, this is true if and only if whenever
i 6= j we have that xα\bi - xα\bj . Hence the set of xα\b is a minimal gerating set for some
ideal I’, and since α \ (α \ b) = b we have that I’[α] = I. But by Theorem 2 we have that
I’=I[α] . and so B={α \ β|xβ is a minimal generator of I[α] . This is thus unique
decomposition as desired.

The equivalent staement is derived by noting that if xβ is a minimal generator of I[α] then
mα\β is a irreducible component of I and so as α \ (α \ b) = b every xβ that is a minimal
generator of I[α] is gen erated by some malpha\β that is a irreducible component of I.
Similarly every irreducible component of I can be traced in the same way to a minimal
generator of I[α] .

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 Refrences
[1] Miller, Ezra. Alexander Duality for Monomial Ideal and Their Resolutions.Journal of
Algebra. 1998
[2] Herzog, Jürgen, and Takayuki Hibi. Monomial Ideals. Springer, 2011.
[3] Miller, Ezra, and Bernd Sturmfels. Combinatorial commutative algebra. Springer, 2005.
[4] Carlsson, G. Topology and Data. AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY 46.2
(2009).
[5] Milne, J. S. Class Field Theory. Lecture Notes.
www.jmilne.org/math/CourseNotes/cft.html. 20/03/2011