A new algebraic criterion for shellability (Q1261214)

A filtration \(0=M_ 0\subset M_ 1\subset\cdots\subset M_ n=M\) by submodules of a module \(M\) over a commutative ring \(R\) is said to be clean if, for each \(i=1,\ldots,n\), there is a prime ideal \(P_ i\) of \(R\) containing the annihilator \(\{r\in R|\;r\cdot M=0\}\) of \(M\), such that \(M_ i/M_{i-1}\cong R/P_ i\). Then \(M\) itself is called clean if it has a clean filtration. Let \(\Delta\) be a simplicial complex, regarded as a family of subsets of the set \(X\); then \(\Delta\) is called shellable if its maximal subsets can be ordered \(B_ 1,\ldots,B_ k\), so that, for all \(1\leq j<i\leq k\), if \(x\in B_ i\backslash B_ j\), then there is a \(j'\in\{1,\ldots,i-1\}\), such that \(B_ i\backslash B_{j'}=\{x\}\). If \(K\) is a field, then the face ring of \(\Delta\) is the quotient \(K[\Delta]:=R[X]/I\), where \(I\) is the ideal generated by the monomials \(\prod_{x\in A} x\) with \(A\notin\Delta\). When \(\Delta\) is a pure complex (all maximal subsets have the same size), it is well known that, if \(\Delta\) is shellable, then \(K[\Delta]\) is Cohen-Macaulay. The author's result improves on this, by characterizing as shellable those (not necessarily pure) simplicial complexes \(\Delta\) for which \(K[\Delta]\) is clean as a module over itself.