Breaking up Simplicial Homology and Subadditivity of Syzygies

Abstract

We consider the following question: if a simplicial complex $\Delta$ has $d$-homology, then does the corresponding $d$-cycle always induce cycles of smaller dimension that are not boundaries in $\Delta$? We provide an answer to this question in a fixed dimension. We use the breaking of homology to show the subadditivity property for the maximal degrees of syzygies of monomial ideals in a fixed homological degree.