Hypergraphs and the Regularity of Square-free Monomial Ideals

We define a new combinatorial object, which we call a labeled hypergraph, uniquely associated to any square-free monomial ideal. We prove several upper bounds on the regularity of a square-free monomial ideal in terms of simple combinatorial properties of its labeled hypergraph. We also give specific formulas for the regularity of square-free monomial ideals with certain labeled hypergraphs. Furthermore, we prove results in the case of one-dimensional labeled hypergraphs.