Linear polynomials for the regularity of powers of edge ideals of very well-covered graphs (Q2236787)

Let \(R=K[x_1, \dots, x_n]\) be the polynomial ring over a field \(K\) and let \(M\) be a graded \(R\)-module. Suppose that the minimal free resolution of \(M\) is given by \[0\rightarrow \cdots \rightarrow \bigoplus_j R(-j)^{\beta _{1,j}(M)}\rightarrow \bigoplus_j R(-j)^{\beta _{0,j}(M)}\rightarrow M\rightarrow 0.\] The Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of \(M\) is defined as \[\mathrm{reg}(M)=\max\{j-i\mid \beta _{i,j}(M)\neq 0\}.\] There is a natural correspondence between quadratic squarefree monomial ideals of \(R\) and finite simple graphs with \(n\) vertices. To every simple graph \(G\) with vertex set \(V(G)=\{x_1, \ldots, x_n\}\) and edge set \(E(G)\), one associates its edge ideal \(I(G)\) defined by \[I(G)=\big(x_ix_j: \{x_i, x_j\}\in E(G)\big).\]It is known that for every graph \(G\), there exist integers \(b\) and \(s_0\) such that \(\mathrm{reg}(I(G)^s)=2s+b\) for all \(s\geq s_0\). The goal of the paper under review is to compute the integers \(b\) and \(s_0\) when \(G\) is a very well-covered graph. Recall that a graph \(G\) is very well-covered if it is unmixed without isolated vertices and with \(\mathrm{ht}(I(G))=|V(G)|/2\). As the main result, it is shown that for every very well-covered graph \(G\) and for every integer \(s\geq 1\), \[\mathrm{reg}(I(G)^s)=2s+\nu(G)-1,\]where \(\nu(G)\) denotes the induced matching number of \(G\) which is the size of the largest induced matching in \(G\).