Let $k$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p > 0$. We show that if $X\subseteq\mathbb{P}^n_k$ is an equidimensional subscheme with Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity less than $λ$ at all points $x\in X$, then for a general hyperplane $H\subseteq\mathbb{P}^n_k$, the Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity of $X\cap H$ is less than $λ$ at all points $x\in X\cap H$. This answers a conjecture and generalizes a result of Carvajal-Rojas, Schwede and Tucker, whose conclusion is the same as ours when $X\subseteq\mathbb{P}^n_k$ is normal. In the process, we substantially generalize certain uniform estimates on Hilbert--Kunz multiplicities of fibers of maps obtained by the aforementioned authors that should be of independent interest.
We show that Bertini theorems hold for $F$-signature and Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity. In particular, if $X \subseteq \mathbb{P}^n$ is normal and quasi-projective with $F$-signature greater than $λ$ (respectively the Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity is less than $λ$) at all points $x \in X$, then for a general hyperplane $H \subseteq \mathbb{P}^n$ the $F$-signature (respectively Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity) of $X \cap H$ is greater than $λ$ (respectively less than $λ$) at all points $x \in X \cap H$.
A result of Watanabe and Yoshida says that an unmixed local ring of positive characteristic is regular if and only if its Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity is one. We show that, for fixed $p$ (characteristic) and $d$ (dimension), there exist a number $ε(d,p) > 0$ such that any nonregular unmixed ring $R$ has Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity at least $1+ε(d,p)$. We also show that local rings with sufficiently small Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity are Cohen-Macaulay and $F$-rational.
We show that the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicities of the reductions to positive characteristics of an irreducible projective curve in characteristic 0 have a well-defined limit as the characteristic tends to infinity.
We show that the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity is a rational number for an R_+-primary homogeneous ideal I=(f_1, ..., f_n) in a two-dimensional graded domain R of finite type over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic. Moreover we give a formula for the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity in terms of certain rational numbers coming from the strong Harder-Narasimhan filtration of the syzygy bundle Syz(f_1, . . ., f_n) on the projective curve Y = Proj R.
This paper develops a theory of equimultiplicity for Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity and uses it to study the behavior of Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity on the Brenner-Monsky hypersurface. A number of applications follows, in particular we show that Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity attains infinitely many values and that equimultiple strata may not be locally closed.
This paper concerns the question of whether a more direct limit can be used to obtain the limit Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity, a possible candidate for a characteristic zero Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity. The main goal is to establish an affirmative answer for one of the main cases for which the limit Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity is even known to exist, namely that of graded ideals in the homogeneous coordinate ring of smooth projective curves. The proof involves more careful estimates of bounds found independently by Brenner and Trivedi on the dimensions of the cohomologies of twists of the syzygy bundl…
We interpret Hilbert-Kunz theory of a graded ring of positive characteristic in terms of Frobenius asymptotic of cohomology of vector bundles on projective varieties. With this method we show that for almost all prime numbers there exist three-dimensional quartic hypersurface domains and modules of finite length with irrational Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity. From this we deduce that also the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity of a local noetherian domain might be an irrational number.
For a pair $(M, I)$, where $M$ is finitely generated graded module over a standard graded ring $R$ of dimension $d$, and $I$ is a graded ideal with $\ell(R/I) < \infty$, we introduce a new invariant $HKd(M, I)$ called the {\em Hilbert-Kunz density function}. In Theorem 1.1, we relate this to the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity $e_{HK}(M,I)$ by an integral formula. We prove that the Hilbert-Kunz density function is additive. Moreover it satisfies a multiplicative formula for a Segre product of rings. This gives a formula for $e_{HK}$ of the Segre product of rings in terms of the HKd of the rings invo…
Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity and F-signature are numerical invariants of commutative rings in positive characteristic that measure severity of singularities: for a regular ring both invariants are equal to one and the converse holds under mild assumptions. A natural question is for what singular rings these invariants are closest to one. For Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity this question was first considered by the last two authors and attracted significant attention. In this paper, we study this question, i.e., an upper bound, for F-signature and revisit lower bounds on Hilbert--Kunz multiplicity.
We study Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity of non-singular curves in positive characteristic. We analyse the relationship between the Frobenius semistability of the kernel sheaf associated with the curve and its ample line bundle, and the HK multiplicity. This leads to a lower bound, achieved iff the kernel sheaf is Frobenius semistable, and otherwise to formulas for the HK multiplicity in terms of parameters measuring the failure of Frobenius semistability. As a byproduct, an explicit example of a vector bundle on a curve is given whose $n$-th iterated Frobenius pullback is not semistable, while its …
Let R denote a two-dimensional normal standard-graded domain over the algebraic closure K of a finite field of characteristic p, and let I denote a homogeneous primary ideal. We prove that the Hilbert-Kunz function of I has the form = e_{HK}(I) q^{2} + g (q) with rational Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity e_{HK}(I) and an eventually periodic function g (q).
The paper investigates the behavior of Hilbert-Samuel and Hilbert-Kunz multiplicities in families of ideals. It is shown that Hilbert-Samuel multiplicity is upper semicontinuous almost generally and that Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity is upper semicontinuous in families of finite type. Surprisingly, our machinery can be applied for families over Z and yields a partial solution to the question about characteristic zero Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity posed by Brenner, Li, and Miller. Another application is that for an affine ring the infimum in the definition of F-rational signature, an invariant defined …
Let $(R,\mathfrak m)$ be a local ring of characteristic $p>0$ and $M$ a finitely generated $R$-module. In this note we consider the limit: $\lim_{n\to \infty} \frac{\ell(H^0_{\mathfrak m}(F^n(M)))}{p^{n\dim R}} $ where $F(-)$ is the Peskine-Szpiro functor. A consequence of our main results shows that the limit always exists when $R$ is excellent and has isolated singularity. Furthermore, if $R$ is a complete intersection, then the limit is 0 if and only if the projective dimension of $M$ is less than the Krull dimension of $R$. We exploit this fact to give a quick proof that if $R$ is a comple…
For a toric pair $(X, D)$, where $X$ is a projective toric variety of dimension $d-1\geq 1$ and $D$ is a very ample $T$-Cartier divisor, we show that the Hilbert-Kunz density function $HKd(X, D)(λ)$ is the $d-1$ dimensional volume of ${\overline {\mathcal P}}_D \cap \{z= λ\}$, where ${\overline {\mathcal P}}_D\subset {\mathbb R}^d$ is a compact $d$-dimensional set (which is a finite union of convex polytopes). We also show that, for $k\geq 1$, the function $HKd(X, kD)$ can be replaced by another compactly supported continuous function $φ_{kD}$ which is `linear in $k$'. This gives the formula f…
The classical Bertini theorem on generic intersection of an algebraic set with hyperplanes states the following: \emph{Let X be a nonsingular closed subvariety of $\mathbb{P}^n_k$, where $k$ is an algebraically closed field. Then there exists a hyperplane $H\subset \mathbb{P}^n_k$ not containing $X$ and such that the scheme $H\cap X$ is regular at every point. Furthermore, the set of hyperplanes with this property forms an open dense subset of the complete linear system $|H|$ considered as a projective space. } We will show that one can effectively indicate a finite family of hyperplanes $H$ s…
This article is concerned with the asymptotic behavior of certain sequences of ideals in rings of prime characteristic. These sequences, which we call $p$-families of ideals, are ubiquitous in prime characteristic commutative algebra (e.g., they occur naturally in the theories of tight closure, Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity, and $F$-signature). We associate to each $p$-family of ideals an object in Euclidean space that is analogous to the Newton-Okounkov body of a graded family of ideals, which we call a $p$-body. Generalizing the methods used to establish volume formulas for the Hilbert-Kunz mult…
We determine the Hilbert-Kunz function of plane elliptic curves in odd characteristic, as well as over arbitrary fields the generalized Hilbert-Kunz functions of nodal cubic curves. Together with results of K. Pardue and P. Monsky, this completes the list of Hilbert-Kunz functions of plane cubics. Combining these results with the calculation of the (generalized) Hilbert-Kunz function of Cayley's cubic surface, it follows that in each degree and over any field of positive characteristic there are curves resp. surfaces taking on the minimally possible Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity.
In this thesis we compute the Hilbert-Kunz functions of two-dimensional rings of type ADE by using representations of their indecomposable, maximal Cohen-Macaulay modules in terms of matrix factorizations, and as first syzygy modules of homogeneous ideals. For these computations we need to compute the Hilbert-series of the involved first syzygy modules as well as the fact that the surface rings of type ADE defined over the complex numbers are the rings of invariants of C[x,y] under actions defined by the finite subgroups of SL2(C). Finally, we will show that the developed tools can be used to …
We prove that, analogous to the HK density function, (used for studying the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity, the leading coefficient of the HK function), there exists a $β$-density function $g_{R, {\bf m}}:[0,\infty)\longrightarrow {\mathbb R}$, where $(R, {\bf m})$ is the homogeneous coordinate ring associated to the toric pair $(X, D)$, such that $$\int_0^{\infty}g_{R, {\bf m}}(x)dx = β(R, {\bf m}),$$ where $β(R, {\bf m})$ is the second coefficient of the Hilbert-Kunz function for $(R, {\bf m})$, as constructed by Huneke-McDermott-Monsky. Moreover we prove, (1) the function $g_{R, {\bf m}}:[0, \in…
We had shown earlier that for a standard graded ring $R$ and a graded ideal $I$ in characteristic $p>0$, with $\ell(R/I) <\infty$, there exists a compactly supported continuous function $f_{R, I}$ whose Riemann integral is the HK multiplicity $e_{HK}(R, I)$. We explore further some other invariants, namely the shape of the graph of $f_{R, {\bf m}}$ (where ${\bf m}$ is the graded maximal ideal of $R$) and the maximum support (denoted as $α(R,I)$) of $f_{R, I}$. In case $R$ is a domain of dimension $d\geq 2$, we prove that $(R, {\bf m})$ is a regular ring if and only if $f_{R, {\bf m}}$ has a sy…
Here we prove that the Hilbert-Kunz mulitiplicity of a quadric hypersurface of dimension $d$ and odd characteristic $p\geq 2d-4$ is bounded below by $1+m_d$, where $m_d$ is the $d^{th}$ coefficient in the expansion of $\mbox{sec}+\mbox{tan}$. This proves a part of the long standing conjecture of Watanabe-Yoshida. We also give an upper bound on the HK multiplicity of such a hypersurface. We approach the question using the HK density function and the classification of ACM bundles on the smooth quadrics via matrix factorizations.
