Equality of ordinary and symbolic powers of Stanley-Reisner ideals

Abstract

This paper studies properties of simplicial complexes for which the m-th symbolic power of the Stanley-Reisner ideal equals to the m-th ordinary power for a given m > 1. The main results are combinatorial characterizations of such complexes in the two-dimensional case. It turns out that there exist only a finite number of complexes with this property and that these complexes can be described completely. As a consequence we are able to determine all complexes for which the m-th ordinary power of the Stanley-Reisner ideal is Cohen-Macaulay for a given m > 1.