Stanley decompositions and partitionable simplicial complexes (Q2467556)

Let \(S = K[x_1,\ldots, x_n]\) be a polynomial ring over a field \(K\) and \(I\subset S\) a monomial ideal. The main interest in this paper is to consider combinatorial upper bounds of the depth of \(S/I\). For a monomial \(u\in S\) and a subset \(Z = \{i_1,\ldots, i_d\}\subseteq \{1,\ldots, n\}\), Stanley space \(u K[Z]\) of dimension \(d\) is the \(K\)-vector space spanned by the set \(\{u v| v\in S\; {\text{is a monomial}}\}\). Let \(I^{c} \subset S\) be the \(K\)-vector subspace of \(S\) spanned by monomials such that \(S = I\oplus I^{c}\). Then \(I^{c}\) is a \(K\)-basis for \(S/I\) and a finite direct sum of Stanley spaces \({\mathcal D}: I^{c} = \bigoplus_{i=1}^k u_i K[Z_i^{\mathcal D}]\) is called a Stanley decomposition of \(S/I\). Now we define the Stanley depth of \(S/I\), \({\text{ sdepth}}(S/I)\), to be the maximum of \(\min\{\sharp (Z_i^{\mathcal D})| i=1,\ldots, k\}\) for all Stanley decompositions \({\mathcal D}\). \(I\) is called a Stanley ideal if \({\text{ sdepth}}(S/I)\geq {\text{ depth}}(S/I)\). \textit{R.\ P.\ Stanley} conjectured [Invent. Math. 68, 175--193 (1982; Zbl 0516.10009)] that all the monomial ideals are Stanley ideals, but not many classes of Stanley ideal have been known so far. The authors show in this paper that if (1) \(I\) is perfect of codimension~2, or (2) \(I\) is Gorenstein of codimension~3, then \(I\) is a Stanley ideal. The authors also consider a relation with partitionable Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complexes. A simplicial complex \(\Delta\) is called partitionable if there exists a partition \(\Delta = \bigcup_{i=1}^r[F_i, G_i]\) where \([F_i, G_i]=\{F\in\Delta | F_i \subset F\subset G_i\}\) with \(G_i\) a facet of \(\Delta\). \textit{R. P. Stanley} conjectured [``Combinatorics and commutative algebra.'' Progr. Math. 41 (1983; Zbl 0537.13009); in: Mathematics: frontiers and perspectives. 295--319 (2000; Zbl 0955.05111)] that all the Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complexes are partitionable. The authors show that for a squarefree monomial ideal \(I\subset S\) such that \(S/I\) is Cohen-Macaulay, \(I\) is a Stanley ideal if and only if the simplicial complex \(\Delta\) corresponding to \(I\) is partitionable.