We show that the virtual cohomological dimension of a Coxeter group is essentially the regularity of the Stanley–Reisner ring of its nerve. Using this connection between geometric group theory and commutative algebra, as well as techniques from the theory of hyperbolic Coxeter groups, we study the behavior of the Castelnuovo–Mumford regularity of square-free quadratic monomial ideals. We construct examples of such ideals which exhibit arbitrarily high regularity after linear syzygies for arbitrarily many steps. We give a doubly logarithmic bound on the regularity as a function of the number of variables if these ideals are Cohen–Macaulay.

Green’s conjecture predicts than one can read off special linear series on an algebraic curve, by looking at the syzygies of its canonical embedding. We extend Voisin’s results on syzygies of K3 sections, to the case of K3 surfaces with arbitrary Picard lattice. This, coupled with results of Voisin and Hirschowitz–Ramanan, provides a complete solution to Green’s conjecture for smooth curves on arbitrary K3 surfaces.

Using multigraded Castelnuovo–Mumford regularity, we study the equations defining a projective embedding of a variety $X$. Given globally generated line bundles $B_{1}, \dotsc, B_{\ell}$ on $X$ and $m_{1}, \dotsc, m_{\ell} \in \mathbb{N}$, consider the line bundle $L := B_{1}^{m_{1}} \otimes \dotsb \otimes B_{\ell}^{m_{\ell}}$. We give conditions on the $m_{i}$ which guarantee that the ideal of $X$ in $\mathbb{P}(H^{0}(X,L)^{*})$ is generated by quadrics and that the first $p$ syzygies are linear. This yields new results on the syzygies of toric varieties and the normality of polytopes.

We study bounds for the Castelnuovo–Mumford regularity of homogeneous ideals in a polynomial ring in terms of the number of variables and the degree of the generators. In particular, our aim is to give a positive answer to a question posed by Bayer and Mumford in What can be computed in algebraic geometry? (Computational algebraic geometry and commutative algebra, Symposia Mathematica, vol. XXXIV (1993), 1–48) by showing that the known upper bound in characteristic zero holds true also in positive characteristic. We first analyse Giusti's proof, which provides the result in characteristic zero, giving some insight into the combinatorial properties needed in that context. For the general case, we provide a new argument which employs the Bayer–Stillman criterion for detecting regularity.

We prove that the Veronese embedding φ$_{\cal O \Bbb P}$n(d):$\Bbb P$n$\hookrightarrow \Bbb P$N with n[ges ]2, d[ges ]3 does not satisfy property Np (according to Green and Lazarsfeld) if p[ges ]3d−2. We make the conjecture that also the converse holds. This is true for n=2 and for n=d=3.