Decomposable clutters and a generalization of Simon's conjecture (Q2419475)

Let \(\Delta\) be a simplicial complex. A simplicial complex \(\Gamma\) is a subcomplex of \(\Delta\), if every facet of \(\Gamma\) is a facet of \(\Delta\). The simplicial complex \(\Delta\) is extendably shellable, if every shelling order of any subcomplex of \(\Delta\) can be extended to a shelling order for \(\Delta\). \textit{R. S. Simon} [J. Algebra 167, No. 2, 361--388 (1994; Zbl 0855.13013)] conjectured that every \(d\)-skeleton of a simplex is extendably shellable. A clutter \(\mathcal{C}\) with vertex set \([n]\) consists of a set of subsets of \([n]\), called the circuits of \(\mathcal{C}\), with the property that no circuit contains another. Let \(\mathbb{K}\) be a field and \(S = \mathbb{K}[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\) be the polynomial ring in \(n\) variables over \(\mathbb{K}\). For any clutter \(\mathcal{C}\), its circuit ideal (or its edge ideal) is defined as \[ I(\mathcal{C})=\big(\prod_{i\in T}x_i: T\in \mathcal{C}\big). \] For an integer \(d\geq 1\), the clutter \(\mathcal{C}\) is called \(d\)-uniform, if every circuit of \(\mathcal{C}\) has cardinality \(d\). The complement of a \(d\)-uniform clutter \(\mathcal{C}\) is the clutter \(\overline{\mathcal{C}}\) which has the same vertex set as \(\mathcal{C}\), and its circuits are those \(d\)-subsets of vertices which are not the circuits of \(\mathcal{C}\). In the paper under review, the authors define the notion of decomposable clutters, as a generalization of chordal graphs. It is proven that for any decomposable clutter \(\mathcal{C}\), the ideal \(I(\overline{\mathcal{C}})\) has linear quotients and hence linear resolution over all fields. It is also shown that the chordality of decomposable clutters (in the sense of [\textit{M. Bigdeli} et al., J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 145, 129--149 (2017; Zbl 1355.05285)]) implies Simon's conjecture. Moreover, the authors prove Simon's conjecture for \(d\geq n-3\).