Depth and Stanley depth of the edge ideals of the powers of paths and cycles

Abstract

Let $k$ be a positive integer. We compute depth and Stanley depth of the quotient ring of the edge ideal associated to the $k^{th}$ power of a path on $n$ vertices. We show that both depth and Stanley depth have the same values and can be given in terms of $k$ and $n$. For $n\geq 2k+1$, let $n\equiv 0,k+1,k+2,\dots, n-1(\mod(2k+1))$. Then we give values of depth and Stanley depth of the quotient ring of the edge ideal associated to the $k^{th}$ power of a cycle on $n$ vertices and tight bounds otherwise, in terms of $n$ and $k$. We also compute lower bounds for the Stanley depth of the edge ideals associated to the $k^{th}$ power of a path and a cycle and prove a conjecture of Herzog presented in \cite{HS} for these ideals.