Cohen-Macaulayness of large powers of Stanley-Reisner ideals (Q655360)

This paper under review studies the Cohen-Macaulayness of ordinary and symbolic powers \(I_\Delta^m\) and \(I_\Delta^{(m)}\) of the Stanley-Reisner ideal \(I_\Delta\) of a simplicial complex. A classical theorem by \textit{R. C. Cowsik} and \textit{M. V. Nori} [J. Indian Math. Soc., New Ser. 40, 217--222 (1976; Zbl 0437.14028)] implies that \(I_\Delta^{m}\) is Cohen-Macaulay for all \(m\) if and only if \(I_\Delta\) is a complete intersection. However, since there exist examples such that \(I_\Delta^2\) is Cohen-Macaulay but \(I_\Delta^3\) is not Cohen-Macaulay, it is natural to ask characterizations of Cohen-Macaulayness of \(I_\Delta^m\) for a fixed \(m\). The authors of this paper establish the following characterization (Theorem~4.3 and 4.8): for a simplicial complex \(\Delta\) with \(\dim\Delta\geq 2\), the following are equivalent: (i) \(I_\Delta^m\) is Cohen-Macaulay for every \(m\geq 1\), (ii) \(I_\Delta^m\) is Cohen-Macaulay for some \(m\geq 3\), (iii) \(I_\Delta^m\) satisfies Serre condition \((S_2)\) for some \(m\geq 3\), (iv) \(I_\Delta^m\) is (quasi-)Buchsbaum for some \(m\geq 3\), (v) \(\Delta\) is a complete intersection. On the other hand, since \(I_\Delta^m\) is Cohen-Macaulay if and only if \(I_\Delta^{(m)}\) is Cohen-Macaulay and \(I_\Delta^{(m)} = I_\Delta^m\), it is also interesting to consider the similar question on the symbolic powers. The authors show a characterization of Cohen-Macaulayness of \(I^{(m)}_\Delta\), which is similar to the characterization for ordinary powers given above but ``complete intersection'' in (v) is replaced by ``matroid'' (Theorem~3.6 and 3.9). As applications, characterizations of Cohen-Macaulayness of symbolic powers of the facet ideal \(I(\Delta)\) and the cover ideal \(J(\Delta)\) of a simplicial complex \(\Delta\) are given (Theorem~5.2 and 5.6).