Chordality of Clutters with Vertex Decomposable Dual and Ascent of Clutters

Abstract: In this paper, we consider the generalization of chordal graphs to clutters proposed by Bigdeli, et al in J. Combin. Theory, Series A (2017). Assume that $\mathcal{C}$ is a $d$-dimensional uniform clutter. It is known that if $\mathcal{C}$ is chordal, then $I(\bar{\mathcal{C}})$ has a linear resolution over all fields. The converse has recently been rejected, but the following question which poses a weaker version of the converse is still open: "if $I(\bar{\mathcal{C}})$ has linear quotients, is $\mathcal{C}$ necessarily chordal?". Here, by introducing the concept of the ascent of a clutter, we split this question into two simpler questions and present some clues in support of an affirmative answer. In particular, we show that if $I(\bar{\mathcal{C}})$ is the Stanley-Reisner ideal of a simplicial complex with a vertex decomposable Alexander dual, then $\mathcal{C}$ is chordal.