Gröbner bases for (all) Grassmann manifolds

Abstract

Grassmann manifolds $G_{k,n}$ are among the central objects in geometry and topology. The Borel picture of the mod 2 cohomology of $G_{k,n}$ is given as a polynomial algebra modulo a certain ideal $I_{k,n}$. The purpose of this paper is to understand this cohomology via Gröbner bases. Reduced Gröbner bases for the ideals $I_{k,n}$ are determined. An application of these bases is given by proving an immersion theorem for Grassmann manifolds $G_{5,n}$, which establishes new immersions for an infinite family of these manifolds.