Cohen-Macaulay Monomial Ideals of Codimension 2

Abstract

We give a structure theorem for Cohen Macaulay monomial ideals of codimension 2, and describe all possible relation matrices of such ideals. In case that the ideal has a linear resolution, the relation matrices can be identified with the spanning trees of a connected chordal graph with the property that each distinct pair of maximal cliques of the graph has at most one vertex in common.