abstract
- In attempting to understand how combinatorial modifications alter algebraic properties of monomial ideals, several authors have investigated the process of adding "whiskers" to graphs. In this paper, we study a similar construction to build a simplicial complex $\Delta_\chi$ from a coloring $\chi$ of a subset of the vertices of $\Delta$, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for this construction to produce vertex decomposable simplicial complexes. We apply this work to strengthen and give new proofs about sequentially Cohen-Macaulay edge ideals of graphs.