Associated to a simple undirected graph G is a simplicial complex ∆G whose faces correspond to the independent sets of G. We call a graph G shellable if ∆G is a shellable simplicial complex in the non-pure sense of Björner-Wachs. We are then interested in determining what families of graphs have the property that G is shellable. We show that all chordal graphs are shellable. Furthermore, we cla...

Björner and Wachs generalized the definition of shellability by dropping the assumption of purity; they also introduced the h-triangle, a doubly-indexed generalization of the h-vector which is combinatorially significant for nonpure shellable complexes. Stanley subsequently defined a nonpure simplicial complex to be sequentially Cohen-Macaulay if it satisfies algebraic conditions that generaliz...

Let C be a clutter with a perfect matching e1, . . . , eg of König type and let ∆C be the Stanley-Reisner complex of the edge ideal of C. If all c-minors of C have a free vertex and C is unmixed, we show that ∆C is pure shellable. We are able to describe in combinatorial terms when ∆C is pure. If C has no cycles of length 3 or 4, then it is shown that ∆C is pure if and only if ∆C is pure shella...

We prove that if a simplicial complex ∆ is (nonpure) shellable, then the intersection lattice for the corresponding real coordinate subspace arrangement A∆ is homotopy equivalent to the link of the intersection of all facets of ∆. As a consequence, we show that the singularity link of A∆ is homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres. We also show that the complement of A∆ is homotopy equivalent ...

We prove that for every d ≥ 2, deciding if a pure, d-dimensional, simplicial complex is shellable is NP-hard, hence NP-complete. This resolves a question raised, e.g., by Danaraj and Klee in 1978. Our reduction also yields that for every d ≥ 2 and k ≥ 0, deciding if a pure, d-dimensional, simplicial complex is k-decomposable is NP-hard. For d ≥ 3, both problems remain NP-hard when restricted to...

In this paper we study shellable posets (partially ordered sets), that is, finite posets such that the simplicial complex of chains is shellable. It is shown that all admissible lattices (including all finite semimodular and supersolvable lattices) and all bounded locally semimodular finite posets are shellable. A technique for labeling the edges of the Hasse diagram of certain lattices, due to...

The augmented Bergman complex of a matroid is simplicial introduced recently in work Braden, Huh, Matherne, Proudfoot and Wang. It may be viewed as hybrid two well-studied pure shellable complexes associated to matroids: the independent set complex.
 shown here that also shellable, via different families shelling orders. Furthermore, comparing description its homotopy type induced from she...

We show that all monomial ideals in the polynomial ring in at most 3 variables are pretty clean and that an arbitrary monomial ideal I is pretty clean if and only if its polarization I p is clean. This yields a new characterization of pretty clean monomial ideals in terms of the arithmetic degree, and it also implies that a multicomplex is shellable if and only the simplicial complex correspond...

Let G = (V,E) be a graph. If G is a König graph or if G is a graph without 3-cycles and 5-cycles, we prove that the following conditions are equivalent: ∆G is pure shellable, R/I∆ is Cohen-Macaulay, G is an unmixed vertex decomposable graph and G is well-covered with a perfect matching of König type e1, . . . , eg without 4-cycles with two ei’s. Furthermore, we study vertex decomposable and she...