Uniformly Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complexes and almost Gorenstein* simplicial complexes (Q267382)

Let \(R\) be a finitely generated standard graded ring over a field \(k\) of positive dimension. Denote \(\omega_R\) its canonical module. The \(a\)-invariant of \(R\) is \(a = -\min \{k | (\omega_R)_k \neq 0\}\). The algebra \(R\) is said to be almost Gorenstein if \(R\) is Cohen-Macaulay and there is a short exact sequence \[ 0 \to R \to \omega_R(-a) \to C \to 0 \] such that \(C\) has multiplicity equal to its number of minimal generators. That notion was introduced and studied in [\textit{V. Barucci} and \textit{R. Fröberg}, J. Algebra 188, No. 2, 418--442, Art. No. JA966837 (1997; Zbl 0874.13018)] and [\textit{S. Goto} et al., J. Pure Appl. Algebra 219, No. 7, 2666--2712 (2015; Zbl 1319.13017)]. In the paper under review, the authors study almost Gorenstein property for Stanley-Reisner rings. Denote \(\Delta\) a simplicial complex, then \(\Delta\) is said to be Cohen-Macaulay, almost Gorenstein, etc if the corresponding Stanley-Reisner ring is Cohen-Macaulay, almost Gorenstein, etc. The authors proved that every almost Gorenstein simplicial complex must be uniformly Cohen-Macaulay; that is \(\Delta\) is Cohen-Macaulay, and for every facet \(F\) of \(\Delta\), \(\Delta \setminus \{F\}\) is also Cohen-Macaulay. They further gave a topological characterization of uniformly Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complexes. The proof depends on the description of the canonical modules of Stanley-Reisner rings of \textit{H.-G. Gräbe} [J. Algebra 86, 272--281 (1984; Zbl 0533.13003)]. Restricting further to the class of almost Gorenstein rings with \(a\)-invariants equal to zero, the authors gave a decomposition for the corresponding simplicial complexes into indecomposable ones.