Bounds for the regularity of edge ideal of vertex decomposable and shellable graphs (Q553449)

Let \(G\) denote a simple graph on the vertex set \(\{x_1,\ldots,x_n\}\) with edge set \(E(G)\). The edge ideal \(I(G)\) in the polynomial ring \(R = k[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\) over the field \(k\) is defined by \(I(G) = (x_ix_j : \{x_i,x_j\} \in E(G))\). The authors' intention is to describe the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity \(\text{reg} R/I(G)\) in terms of combinatorial data of the graph \(G\). Let \(a'(G)\) denote the maximum number of vertex disjoint paths of length at most two in \(G\) such that paths of lengths one are pairwise \(3\)-disjoint in \(G\). Another integer defined by the authors and related to \(G\) is \(n(G)\). Then it is shown: (1) \(\text{reg} R/I(G) \leq \max \{a'(G), n(G)\}\) for \(G\) a vertex decomposable graph \(G\). (2) \(\text{reg} R/I(G) \leq n(G)\) for \(G\) a shellable graph.