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

Sandwiching saturation number of fullerene graphs

The saturation number of a graph $G$ is the cardinality of any smallest maximal matching of $G$, and it is denoted by $s(G)$. Fullerene graphs are cubic planar graphs with exactly twelve 5-faces; all the other faces are hexagons. They are used to capture the structure of carbon molecules. Here we show that the saturation number of fullerenes on $n$ vertices is essentially $n/3$