Generalized cover ideals and the persistence property

Let I   be a square-free monomial ideal in R=k_x1,…,_xn]$R=k{x}_1,\dots ,x_n]$, and consider the sets of associated primes Ass(I^s)$\mathrm{Ass}(I^s)$ for all integers s?1$s?1$. Although it is known that the sets of associated primes of powers of I eventually stabilize, there are few results about the power at which this stabilization occurs (known as the index of stability). We introduce a family of square-free monomial ideals that can be associated to a finite simple graph G that generalizes the cover ideal construction. When G   is a tree, we explicitly determine Ass(I^s)$\mathrm{Ass}(I^s)$ for all s?1$s?1$. As consequences, not only can we compute the index of stability, we can also show that this family of ideals has the persistence property.