Toric ideals and diagonal 2-minors

Abstract: Let $G$ be a simple graph on the vertex set ${1,\ldots,n}$ with $m$ edges. An algebraic object attached to $G$ is the ideal $P_{G}$ generated by diagonal 2-minors of an $n \times n$ matrix of variables. In this paper we prove that if $G$ is bipartite, then every initial ideal of $P_{G}$ is generated by squarefree monomials of degree at most $\left \lfloor{\frac{m+n+1}{2}} \right \rfloor$. Furthermore, we completely characterize all connected graphs $G$ for which $P_{G}$ is the toric ideal associated to a finite simple graph. Finally we compute in certain cases the universal Gr{\"o}bner basis of $P_{G}$.