Toric double determinantal varieties.

We examine Li's double determinantal varieties in the special case that they are toric. We recover from the general double determinantal varieties case, via a more elementary argument, that they are irreducible and show that toric double determinantal varieties are smooth. We use this framework to give a straightforward formula for their dimension. Finally, we use the smallest nontrivial toric double determinantal variety to provide some empirical evidence concerning an open problem in local algebra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]