Replication in critical graphs and the persistence of monomial ideals

Motivated by questions about square-free monomial ideals in polynomial rings, in 2010 Francisco et al. conjectured that for every positive integer k and every k-critical (i.e., critically k-chromatic) graph, there is a set of vertices whose replication produces a (k+1)-critical graph. (The replication of a set W of vertices of a graph is the operation that adds a copy of each vertex w in W, one at a time, and connects it to w and all its neighbours.) We disprove the conjecture by providing an infinite family of counterexamples. Furthermore, the smallest member of the family answers a question of Herzog and Hibi concerning the depth functions of square-free monomial ideals in polynomial rings, and a related question on the persistence property of such ideals

Generalized cover ideals and the persistence property

Let $I$ be a square-free monomial ideal in $R = k[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$, and consider the sets of associated primes ${\rm Ass}(I^s)$ for all integers $s \geq 1$. Although it is known that the sets of associated primes of powers of $I$ eventually stabilize, there are few results about the power at which this stabilization occurs (known as the index of stability). We introduce a family of square-free monomial ideals that can be associated to a finite simple graph $G$ that generalizes the cover ideal construction. When $G$ is a tree, we explicitly determine ${\rm Ass}(I^s)$ for all $s \geq 1$. As consequences, not only can we compute the index of stability, we can also show that this family of ideals has the persistence property.Comment: 15 pages; revised version has a new introduction; references updated; to appear in J. Pure. Appl. Algebr

The normalized depth function of squarefree powers

The depth of squarefree powers of a squarefree monomial ideal is introduced. Let $I$ be a squarefree monomial ideal of the polynomial ring $S=K[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$. The $k$-th squarefree power $I^{[k]}$ of $I$ is the ideal of $S$ generated by those squarefree monomials $u_1\cdots u_k$ with each $u_i\in G(I)$, where $G(I)$ is the unique minimal system of monomial generators of $I$. Let $d_k$ denote the minimum degree of monomials belonging to $G(I^{[k]})$. One has $\operatorname{depth}(S/I^{[k]}) \geq d_k -1$. Setting $g_I(k) = \operatorname{depth}(S/I^{[k]}) - (d_k - 1)$, one calls $g_I(k)$ the normalized depth function of $I$. The computational experience strongly invites us to propose the conjecture that the normalized depth function is nonincreasing. In the present paper, especially the normalized depth function of the edge ideal of a finite simple graph is deeply studied

A Lower Bound For Depths of Powers of Edge Ideals

Let $G$ be a graph and let $I$ be the edge ideal of $G$. Our main results in this article provide lower bounds for the depth of the first three powers of $I$ in terms of the diameter of $G$. More precisely, we show that \depth R/I^t \geq \left\lceil{\frac{d-4t+5}{3}} \right\rceil +p-1, where $d$ is the diameter of $G$, $p$ is the number of connected components of $G$ and $1 \leq t \leq 3$. For general powers of edge ideals we showComment: 21 pages, to appear in Journal of Algebraic Combinatoric

The uniform face ideals of a simplicial complex

We define the uniform face ideal of a simplicial complex with respect to an ordered proper vertex colouring of the complex. This ideal is a monomial ideal which is generally not squarefree. We show that such a monomial ideal has a linear resolution, as do all of its powers, if and only if the colouring satisfies a certain nesting property. In the case when the colouring is nested, we give a minimal cellular resolution supported on a cubical complex. From this, we give the graded Betti numbers in terms of the face-vector of the underlying simplicial complex. Moreover, we explicitly describe the Boij-S\"oderberg decompositions of both the ideal and its quotient. We also give explicit formul\ae\ for the codimension, Krull dimension, multiplicity, projective dimension, depth, and regularity. Further still, we describe the associated primes, and we show that they are persistent.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figure

In the shadows of a hypergraph: looking for associated primes of powers of square-free monomial ideals

The aim of this paper is to study the associated primes of powers of square-free monomial ideals. Each square-free monomial ideal corresponds uniquely to a finite simple hypergraph via the cover ideal construction, and vice versa. Let H be a finite simple hypergraph and J(H) the cover ideal of H. We define the shadows of hypergraph, H, described as a collection of smaller hypergraphs related to H under some conditions. We then investigate how the shadows of H preserve information about the associated primes of the powers of J(H). Finally, we apply our findings on shadows to study the persistence property of square-free monomial ideals and construct some examples exhibiting failure of containment