Canonical traces of Artinian truncations of Stanley-Reisner rings
For a simplicial complex $\Delta$ and integers $n_i\ge 2$, set $A_{\Delta,\mathbf n}=\mathbb{k}[x_1,\ldots,x_m]/(I_\Delta+(x_1^{n_1},\ldots,x_m^{n_m}))$. We give an exact combinatorial formula for the canonical trace for arbitrary truncation exponents and for an arbitrary simplicial complex after deleting irrelevant ghost vertices. The formula extends the free-face formula of Gasanova--Herzog--Hibi--Moradi for square-zero flag face algebras and recovers, in the simplex-boundary case, a special case of their formula for monomial almost complete intersections. As a first consequence, we classify the nearly Gorenstein algebras in this family: on each connected component $C$ of $\Delta^{(1)}$, the induced complex is either the simplex $2^C$, with arbitrary exponents, or the boundary $\partial 2^C$, with every exponent equal to two. We also compute the Teter number on this nearly Gorenstein locus. For flag complexes the trace is generated by the free-face monomials for arbitrary exponents, and we characterize the equalities $\operatorname{tr}_A(\omega_A)=\mathfrak m_A^q$. In the square-zero one-dimensional case we isolate the additional contribution coming from triangle components.