Comparison between regularity of small symbolic powers and ordinary powers of an edge ideal (Q2672926)

Let \(G\) denote a finite simple graph and let \(I(G)\) denote its edge ideal. There is a large interest in the relation between combinatorial properties of \(G\) and arithmetic properties of its Stanley-Reisner ring. For instance, the study of the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity \(\operatorname{reg}(I(G)^s)\) of the ordinary powers and \(\operatorname{reg}(I(G)^{(s)})\) of the symbolic powers of \(I(G)\). In the present paper the authors contribute to a conjecture of the first author, namely \(\operatorname{reg}(I(G)^s) = \operatorname{reg}(I(G)^{(s)})\) for all \(s \geq 1\). Here it is shown that the conjecture holds for \(s = 2,3\). Moreover the authors prove the following bound \( \operatorname{reg}(I(G)^{(s)}) \leq 2s-2+ \operatorname{reg}(I(G))\) for \(s = 2,3,4\). This is related to a corresponding result for the ordinary powers and \(s = 2,3\) shown by \textit{A. Banerjee} and \textit{E. Nevo} [``Regularity of edge ideals via suspension'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1908.03115}]. Moreover, there are explicit values of the regularity of small symbolic powers of \(I(G)\) for some new classes of graphs.