Behaviour of the normalized depth function

TL;DR

This paper investigates the behavior of the normalized depth function of squarefree monomial ideals, characterizes certain cochordal graphs with specific depth properties, and constructs ideals with prescribed normalized depth functions.

Contribution

It characterizes cochordal graphs with a specific normalized depth behavior and shows that any non-increasing function can be realized as a normalized depth function of some ideal.

Findings

Characterization of cochordal graphs with g_{I(G)}(1)=0

Construction of graphs with prescribed normalized depth behavior

Any non-increasing function can be realized as a normalized depth function

Abstract

Let $I\subset S=K[x_1,\dots,x_n]$ be a squarefree monomial ideal, $K$ a field. The $k$th squarefree power $I^{[k]}$ of $I$ is the monomial ideal of $S$ generated by all squarefree monomials belonging to $I^k$. The biggest integer $k$ such that $I^{[k]}\ne(0)$ is called the monomial grade of $I$ and it is denoted by $\nu(I)$. Let $d_k$ be the minimum degree of the monomials belonging to $I^{[k]}$. Then, $\text{depth}(S/I^{[k]})\ge d_k-1$ for all $1\le k\le\nu(I)$. The normalized depth function of $I$ is defined as $g_{I}(k)=\text{depth}(S/I^{[k]})-(d_k-1)$, $1\le k\le\nu(I)$. It is expected that $g_I(k)$ is a non-increasing function for any $I$. In this article we study the behaviour of $g_{I}(k)$ under various operations on monomial ideals. Our main result characterizes all cochordal graphs $G$ such that for the edge ideal $I(G)$ of $G$ we have $g_{I(G)}(1)=0$. They are precisely all cochordal graphs $G$ whose complementary graph $G^c$ is connected and has a cut vertex. As a far-reaching application, for given integers $1\le s<m$ we construct a graph $G$ such that $\nu(I(G))=m$ and $g_{I(G)}(k)=0$ if and only if $k=s+1,\dots,m$. Finally, we show that any non-increasing function of non-negative integers is the normalized depth function of some squarefree monomial ideal.