Closed neighborhood ideals of finite simple graphs (Q2153126)

Suppose that \(K\) is a field and \(G\) is a simple undirected graph with vertex set \(\{x_1, \ldots, x_n\}\) and edge set \(E(G)\). The closed neighborhood of the vertex \(x_i\) is \(N(x_i)=\{x_j| x_ix_j \in E(G)\}\cup\{x_i\}\). Let \(S_i=\prod \{x_j|x_j\in N(x_i)\}\) be the monomial in the ring \(R=K[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\) associated with the vertex \(x_i\) of \(G\). In the paper ``closed neighborhood ideal of a graph'' [\textit{L. Sharifan} and \textit{S. Moradi}, Rocky Mt. J. Math. 50, 1097--1107 (2020; Zbl 1445.13022)], the ideal \(N_G=\langle S_1, S_2, \ldots, S_n \rangle\) in the ring \(R\) is called the closed neighborhood ideal of \(G\). Here, first the authors find the minimal irreducible decomposition of \(N_G\). They show that \(N_G=\bigcap \langle V \rangle\), where the intersection is taken over all minimal dominating sets \(V\) of \(G\) (a dominating set of \(G\) is a set of vertices \(V\) such that each vertex of \(G\) either is in \(V\) or is adjacent to a vertex in \(V\), if moreover, no proper subset of \(V\) is a dominating set, then \(V\) is called a minimal dominating set). After that, the authors consider \(N_G\) when \(G\) is a tree. They prove that in this case \(N_G\) is unmixed if and only if it is Cohen-Macaulay if and only if it is a complete intersection. They also present a combinatorial condition which is equivalent to the aforementioned ones.