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≤t≤3. For general powers of edge ideals we showComment: 21 pages, to appear in Journal of Algebraic Combinatoric