Betti Numbers of Sequentially Cohen-Macaulay Co-Chordal Graphs and Their Applications

Abstract

We study edge ideals of sequentially Cohen-Macaulay co-chordal graphs through the maximal-clique structure of their chordal complements. After making the required construction order explicit, we derive a closed formula for the graded Betti numbers of a co-chordal graph whose complement is a $(d_1,\ldots,d_e)$-tree, and we characterize the Cohen-Macaulay case by its Betti sequence. The general formula is then specialized to split and threshold graphs, prime ideal graphs of finite rings, nilpotent graphs of products of finite chain rings, and zero-divisor graphs of finite chain rings. For products of chain rings, we characterize when the nilpotent graph is threshold and compute its Betti numbers in that range. Finally, among co-chordal zero-divisor graphs of $\mathbb{Z}_n$, we determine exactly when the quotient is sequentially Cohen-Macaulay: this occurs for $n=p^a$, $n=2p$, and $n=2p^2$, with $p$ odd in the last two cases.