Let $F$ be a line bundle on the blow-up $X$ of $P^2$ at $r$ general points $p_1, ..., p_r$ and let $L$ be the pullback to $X$ of the line bundle coming from a line on $P^2$. Under reasonable hypotheses that are conjectured always to hold if the points $p_1, ..., p_r$ are sufficiently general, it is shown that the computation of the dimension of the cokernel of the natural map $μ_F:Γ(F)\otimesΓ(L)\toΓ(F\otimes L)$ reduces to the case that $F$ is ample. As an application, a complete determination of the dimension of the cokernel of $μ_F$ is obtained when $r\le 7$, thereby solving the Ideal Generation Problem for fat point subschemes involving up to 7 general points of the plane and giving an algorithm depending only on the multiplicities $m_i$ for determining the modules in a minimal free resolution of the ideal defining a fat point subscheme $m_1p_1+...+ m_7p_7$ for general points $p_i$. All results hold for an arbitrary algebraically closed ground field $k$.
We introduce definitions for the separator of a fat point and the degree of a fat point for a fat point scheme Z in P^n x P^m, and we study some of their properties.
We investigate the minimal graded free resolutions of ideals of at most n+1 fat points in general position in P^n. Our main theorem is that these ideals are componentwise linear. This result yields a number of corollaries, including the multiplicity conjecture of Herzog, Huneke, and Srinivasan in this case. On the computational side, using an iterated mapping cone process, we compute formulas for the graded Betti numbers of ideals associated to two fat points in P^n, verifying a conjecture of Fatabbi, and at most n+1 general double points in P^n.
The graded Betti numbers of the minimal free resolution (and also therefore the Hilbert function) of the ideal of a fat point subscheme Z of P^2 are determined whenever Z is supported at any 6 or fewer distinct points. All results hold over an algebraically closed field k of arbitrary characteristic.
Starting with the ground-breaking work of Cook II, Harbourne, Migliore and Nagel, there has been a lot of interest in unexpected hypersurfaces. In the last couple of months a considerable number of new examples and new phenomena has been observed and reported on. All examples studied so far had just one fat point. In this note we introduce a new series of examples, which establishes for the first time the existence of unexpected hypersurfaces with multiple fat points. The key underlying idea is to study Fermat-type configurations of points in projective spaces.
This is an appendix to the recent paper of Favacchio and Guardo. In these notes we describe explicitly a minimal bigraded free resolution and the bigraded Hilbert function of a set of 3 fat points whose support is an almost complete intersection (ACI) in $\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1.$ This solve the interpolation problem for three points with an ACI support.
Given an ideal $I$, the containment problem is concerned about finding the values $m$ and $n$ such that the $m$-th symbolic power of $I$ is contained in its $n$-th ordinary power. In this paper we consider this problem focusing on two classes of ideals of fat points. In particular we study the ideal of $n$ points on a line in $\mathbb{P}^N$ and the ideal of three nonlinear points in $\mathbb{P}^N$ for $N\geq2$.
The main result provides an algorithm for determining the minimal free resolution of ideals of fat point subschemes of ${\bf P}^2$ involving up to 8 general points with arbitrary multiplicities; the results hold over algebraically closed fields of any characteristic. The algorithm, which works by giving a formula in certain cases and a reduction to these cases otherwise, does not involve Gröbner bases, and so is very fast, even for very large multiplicities. Partial information is also obtained in certain cases with $n>8$.
These notes are a record of lectures given in the Workshop on Connections Between Algebra and Geometry at the University of Regina, May 29--June 1, 2012. The lectures were meant as an introduction to current research problems related to fat points for an audience that was not expected to have much background in commutative algebra or algebraic geometry (although sections 8 and 9 of these notes demand somewhat more background than earlier sections).
Let Z be a fat point scheme in P^2 supported on general points. Here we prove that if the multiplicities are at most 3 and the length of Z is sufficiently high then the number of generators of the homogeneous ideal I_Z in each degree is as small as numerically possible. Since it is known that Z has maximal Hilbert function, this implies that Z has the expected minimal free resolution.
We study the Hilbert functions of fat points in P^1 x P^1. If Z is an arbitrary fat point subscheme of P^1 x P^1, then it can be shown that for every i and j the values of the Hilbert function H_Z(l,j) and H_Z(i,l) eventually become constant for l >> 0. We show how to determine these eventual values by using only the multiplicities of the points, and the relative positions of the points in P^1 x P^1. This enables us to compute all but a finite number values of H_Z without using the coordinates of points. We also characterize the ACM fat points schemes using our description of the eventual beha…
For a scheme of fat points $Z$ defined by the saturated ideal $\mathcal{I}_Z$, the regularity index computes the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of the Cohen-Macaulay ring $R/\mathcal{I}_Z.$ For points in " general position" we improve the bound for the regularity index computed by Segre for $\mathbb {P}^2$ and generalised by Catalisano, Trung and Valla for $\mathbb {P}^n$. Moreover, we prove that the generalised Segre's bound conjectured by Fatabbi and Lorenzini holds for $n+3$ arbitrary points in $\mathbb {P}^n$. We propose a modification of Segre's conjecture for arbitrary points and we disc…
Two approaches for determining Hilbert functions of fat point subschemes of $\mathbb P^2$ are demonstrated. A complete determination of the Hilbert functions which occur for 9 double points is given using the first approach, extending results obtained in a previous paper using the second approach. In addition the second approach is used to obtain a complete determination of the Hilbert functions for $n\geq 9$ $m$-multiple points for every $m$ if the points are smooth points of an irreducible plane cubic curve. Additional results are obtained using the first approach for $n\geq 9$ double points…
We study the bi-graded Hilbert function of ideals of general fat points with same multiplicity in $\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1$. Our first tool is the multiprojective-affine-projective method introduced by the second author in previous works with A.V. Geramita and A. Gimigliano where they solved the case of double points. In this way, we compute the Hilbert function when the smallest entry of the bi-degree is at most the multiplicity of the points. Our second tool is the differential Horace method introduced by J. Alexander and A. Hirschowitz to study the Hilbert function of sets of fat poi…
The Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of a graded ring is an important invariant in computational commutative algebra, and there is increasing interest in multigraded generalizations. We study connections between two recent definitions of multigraded regularity with a view towards a better understanding of the multigraded Hilbert function of fat point schemes in P^{n_1} x ... x P^{n_k}.
We study the postulation of a general union Y of double, triple, quartuple and quintuple points of P^3. In characteristic 0, we prove that Y has good postulation in degree $d\ge 11$. The proof is based on the combination of the Horace differential lemma with a computer-assisted proof. We also classify the exceptions in degree 9 and 10.
Let $X$ be a set of $K$-rational points in $P^1 \times P^1$ over a field $K$ of characteristic zero, let $Y$ be a fat point scheme supported at $ X$, and let $R_Y$ be the bihomogeneus coordinate ring of $Y$. In this paper we investigate the module of Kaehler differentials $Ω^1_{R_Y/K}$. We describe this bigraded $R_Y$-module explicitly via a homogeneous short exact sequence and compute its Hilbert function in a number of special cases, in particular when the support $X$ is a complete intersection or an almost complete intersection in $P^1 \times P^1$. Moreover, we introduce a Kaehler different…
We consider the open problem of determining the graded Betti numbers for fat point subschemes supported at general points of the projective plane. We relate this problem to the open geometric problem of determining the splitting type of the pullback of the cotangent bundle on the plane to the normalization of certain rational plane curves. We give a conjecture for the graded Betti numbers which would determine them in all degrees but one for every fat point subscheme supported at general points of the plane. We also prove our Betti number conjecture in a broad range of cases. An appendix discu…
We prove invariant of the regularity index of fat points under changes of the linear subspace containing the support of the fat points. Then we show that Segre's bound is attained by any set of s non-degenerate equimultiple fat points in $\mathbb P^n$, $s\le n+3$. We also give an example showing that there always exists a set of n+4 non-degenerate equimultiple fat points in $\mathbb P^n$ such that Segre's bound is not attained.
Given a fat point scheme $\mathbb{W}=m_1P_1+\cdots+m_sP_s$ in the projective $n$-space $\mathbb{P}^n$ over a field $K$ of characteristic zero, the modules of Kähler differential $k$-forms of its homogeneous coordinate ring contain useful information about algebraic and geometric properties of $\mathbb{W}$ when $k\in\{1,\dots, n+1\}$. In this paper we determine the value of its Hilbert polynomial explicitly for the case $k=n+1$, confirming an earlier conjecture. More precisely this value is given by the multiplicity of the fat point scheme $\mathbb{Y} = (m_1-1)P_1 + \cdots + (m_s-1)P_s$. For $n…
This paper surveys certain problems involving numerical characters for ideals I(Z) defining fat points subschemes $Z=m_1p_1+...+m_np_n$ for general points $p_i\in {\bf P}^2$. It also presents some new results, and includes a suite of MACAULAY 2 scripts for computing actual or conjectured values of (or bounds on) these characters. One such script, for example, is findres, which implements an algorithm due to Fitchett, Harbourne and Holay for computing the syzygy modules in a minimal free resolution of the ideal I(Z) for any such Z with n<=8; since findres does not rely on a Gröbner basis calcul…
In this paper we extend the definition of a separator of a point P in P^n to a fat point P of multiplicity m. The key idea in our definition is to compare the fat point schemes Z = m_1P_1 + ... + m_iP_i + .... + m_sP_s in P^n and Z' = m_1P_1 + ... + (m_i-1)P_i + .... + m_sP_s. We associate to P_i a tuple of positive integers of length v = deg Z - deg Z'. We call this tuple the degree of the minimal separators of P_i of multiplicity m_i, and we denote it by deg_Z(P_i) = (d_1,...,d_v). We show that if one knows deg_Z(P_i) and the Hilbert function of Z, one will also know the Hilbert function of …
In this paper we introduce a technique to degenerate K3 surfaces and linear systems through fat points in general position on K3 surfaces. Using this degeneration we show that on generic K3 surfaces it is enough to prove that linear systems with one fat point are non-special in order to obtain the non-speciality of homogeneous linear systems through n = 4^u9^w fat points in general position. Moreover, we use this degeneration to obtain a result for homogeneous linear systems through n = 4^u9^w fat points in general position on a general quartic surface in P^3.
Conjectures for the Hilbert function of the m-th symbolic power of the ideal of n general points of P2 are verified for infinitely many m for each square n > 9, using an approach developed by the authors in a previous paper. In those cases that n is even, conjectures for the resolution are also verified. Previously, by work of Evain (for the Hilbert function) and of Harbourne, Holay and Fitchett (for the resolution), these conjectures were known for infinitely many m for a given n > 9 only for n being a power of 4.
This paper is a natural sequel to [22] in that it tackles problems of the same nature. Here one aims at the ideal theoretic and homological properties of a class of ideals of general plane fat points whose second symbolic powers hold virtual multiplicities of proper homaloidal types. For this purpose one carries a detailed examination of their linear systems at the initial degree, a good deal of the results depending on the method of applying the classical arithmetic quadratic transformations of Hudson--Nagata. A subsidiary guide to understand these ideals through their initial linear systems …
One considers plane Cremona maps with proper base points and the {\em base ideal} generated by the linear system of forms defining the map. The object of this work is the interweave between the algebraic properties of the base ideal and those of the ideal of these points fattened by the virtual multiplicities arising from the linear system. One reveals conditions which naturally regulate this association, with particular emphasis on the homological side. While most classical numerical inequalities concern the three highest virtual multiplicities, here one emphasizes also the role of one single…
In the paper we develop a new method of proving non-speciality of a linear system with base fat points in general position. Using this method we show that the Hirschowitz-Harbourne Conjecture holds for systems with base points of equal multiplicity bounded by 42.
We study the connection between the generation of a fat point scheme supported at general points in the plane and the behaviour of the cotangent bundle with respect to some rational curves particularly relevant for the scheme. We put forward two conjectures, giving examples and partial results in support of them.
Our results concern minimal graded free resolutions of fat point ideals for points in a hyperplane. Suppose, for example, that I(m,d) is the ideal defining r given points of multiplicity m in the projective space P^d. Assume that the given points lie in a hyperplane P^{d-1} in P^d, and that the ground field k is algebraically closed of characteristic 0. We give an explicit minimal graded free resolution of I(m,d) in k[P^d] in terms of the minimal graded free resolutions of the ideals I(j,d-1) in k[P^{d-1}] with j < m+1. As a corollary, we give the following formula for the Poincare polynomial …
Motivated by questions in interpolation theory and on linear systems of rational varieties, one is interested in upper bounds for the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of arbitrary subschemes of fat points. An optimal upper bound, named after Segre, was conjectured by Trung and, independently, by Fattabi and Lorenzini. It is shown that this conjecture is true. Furthermore, an alternate regularity bound is established that improves the Segre bound in some cases. Among the arguments is a new partition result for matroids.
We address the problem to determine the limit of the collision of fat points in $\mathbb{P}^n. We give a description of the limit scheme in many cases, in particular in low dimension and multiplicities. The problem turns out to be closely related with interpolation theory, and as an application we exploit collisions to prove some new cases of Laface-Ugaglia Conjecture.
A current research theme is to compare symbolic powers of an ideal $I$ with the regular powers of $I$. In this paper, we focus on the case that $I=I_X$ is an ideal defining an almost complete intersection (ACI) sets of points $X$ in $\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1$. In particular, we describe a minimal free bigraded resolution of a non arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay (also non homogeneus) set of fat points $\mathcal Z$ whose support is an ACI. We call $\mathcal Z$ a fat ACI. We also show that its symbolic and ordinary powers are equal, i.e, $I_{\mathcal Z}^{(m)}=I_{\mathcal Z}^{m}$ for any $m\ge…
Let I be the ideal corresponding to a set of general points $p_1,...,p_n \in P^2$. There recently has been progress in showing that a naive lower bound for the Hilbert functions of symbolic powers $I^{(m)}$ is in fact attained when n>9. Here, for m sufficiently large, the minimal free graded resolution of $I^{(m)}$ is determined when n>9 is an even square, assuming only that this lower bound on the Hilbert function is attained. Under ostensibly stronger conditions (that are nonetheless expected always to hold), a similar result is shown to hold for odd squares, and for infinitely many m for ea…
In connection with his counter-example to the fourteenth problem of Hilbert, Nagata formulated a conjecture concerning the postulation of r fat points of the same multiplicity in the projective plane and proved it when r is a square. Iarrobino formulated a similar conjecture in any projective space P^d. We prove Iarrobino's conjecture when r is a d-th power. As a corollary, we obtain new counter-examples modeled on those by Nagata.
We study Hilbert functions of certain non-reduced schemes A supported at finite sets of points in projective space, in particular, fat point schemes. We give combinatorially defined upper and lower bounds for the Hilbert function of A using nothing more than the multiplicities of the points and information about which subsets of the points are linearly dependent. When N=2, we give these bounds explicitly and we give a sufficient criterion for the upper and lower bounds to be equal. When this criterion is satisfied, we give both a simple formula for the Hilbert function and combinatorially defi…
Let X be a smooth projective surface. Here we study the postulation of a general union Z of fat points of X, when most of the connected components of Z have multiplicity 2. This problem is related to the existence of "good" families of curves on X, with prescribed singularities, most of them being nodes, and to the cohomology of suitable line bundles on blowing ups of X. More precise statements are obtained in the case X=P^2.
By defining a fat point subscheme of $P^2$ to be a 0-dimensional subscheme defined by a sheaf of integrally closed ideals one extends the notion of fat point subschemes to allow infinitely near points. With this notion of fat points, this preprint determines the number of generators in each degree in a minimal homogeneous set of generators for the homogeneous ideal defining any fat point subscheme supported at points of any plane conic, smooth or not. Special cases for points on a cubic are also studied. All work is over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic.
In this paper we develop techniques for determining the dimension of linear systems of divisors based at a collection of general fat points in P^n by partitioning the monomial basis for the vector space of global sections of O(d). The methods we develop can be viewed as extensions of those developed by Dumnicki. We apply these techniques to produce new lower bounds on multi-point Seshadri constants of P^2 and to provide a new proof of a known result confirming the perfect-power cases of Iarrobino's analogue to Nagata's Conjecture in higher dimension.
The Behrend function of a $\mathbb C$-scheme $X$ is a constructible function $ν_X\colon X(\mathbb C) \to \mathbb Z$ introduced by Behrend, intrinsic to the scheme structure of $X$. It is a (subtle) invariant of singularities of $X$, playing a prominent role in enumerative geometry. To date, only a handful of general properties of the Behrend function are known. In this paper, we compute it for a large class of fat points (schemes supported at a single point). We first observe that, if $X \hookrightarrow \mathbb A^N$ is a fat point, $ν_X$ is the sum of the multiplicities of the irreducible comp…
We study the postulation of a general union $Y$ of double, triple, and quartuple points of $\mathbb{P}^3$. We prove that $Y$ has the expected postulation in degree $d\ge 41$, using the Horace differential lemma. We also discuss the cases of low degree with the aid of computer algebra.
This paper is concerned with determining the number of generators in each degree for minimal sets of homogeneous generators for saturated ideals defining fat point subschemes $Z=m_1p_1+ ... +m_rp_r$ for general sets of points $p_i$ of $P^2$. For thin points (i.e., m_i=1 for all i), a solution is known, in terms of a maximal rank property. Although this property in general fails for fat points, we show it holds in an appropriate asymptotic sense. In the uniform (i.e., $m_1= ... =m_r$) case, we determine all failures of this maximal rank property for $r\le 9$, and we develop evidence for the con…
In this paper we find an algorithm which computes the Hilbert function of schemes $Z$ of "fat points" in $\PP3$ whose support lies on a rational normal cubic curve $C$. The algorithm shows that the maximality of the Hilbert function in degree $t$ is related to the existence of fixed curves (either $C$ itself or one of its secant lines) for the linear system of surfaces of degree $t$ containing $Z$.
We consider the Lie algebra of derivations of a zero dimensional local complex algebra. We describe an inequality involving the embedding dimension, the order, and the first deviation that forces this Lie algebra to be solvable. Our result was motivated by and generalizes the solvability of the Yau algebra of an isolated hypersurface singularity.
There has been increased recent interest in understanding the relationship between the symbolic powers of an ideal and the geometric properties of the corresponding variety. While a number of results are available for the two-dimensional case, the higher-dimensional case is largely unexplored. In the present paper we study a natural conjecture arising from a result by Bocci and Chiantini. As a first step towards understanding the higher-dimensional picture, we show that this conjecture is true in dimension three. Also, we provide examples showing that the hypotheses of the conjecture may not b…
The Hilbert scheme of point modules was introduced by Artin-Tate-Van den Bergh to study non-commutative graded algebras. The key tool is the construction of a map from the algebra to a twisted ring on this Hilbert scheme. In this paper, we study moduli stacks of more general "fat" point modules, and show that there is a similar map to a twisted ring associated to the stack. This is used to provide a sufficient criterion for a non-commutative projective surface to be birationally PI. It is hoped that such a criterion will be useful in understanding Mike Artin's conjecture on the birational clas…
Alexander and Hirschowitz determined the Hilbert function of a generic union of fat points in a projective space when the number of fat points is much bigger than the greatest multiplicity of the fat points. Their method is based on a lemma which determines the limit of a linear system depending on fat points which approach a divisor. On the other hand, Nagata in connection with its counter example to the fourteenth problem of Hilbert determined the Hilbert function H(d) of the union of k^2 points of the same multiplicity m in the plane up to degree d=km. We introduce a new method to determine…
In previous papers the authors gave formulae for generating series of classes (in the Grothendieck ring of complex quasi-projective varieties) of Hilbert schemes of zero-dimensional subschemes on smooth varieties and on orbifolds in terms of certain local data and the, so called, power structure over the corresponding ring. Here we give an analogue of these formulae for equivariant (with respect to an action of a finite group on a smooth variety) Hilbert schemes of zero-dimensional subschemes and compute some local generating series for an action of the cyclic group on a smooth surface.
We present a formal scheme based cycle model for the motivic cohomology of the fat points defined by the truncated polynomial rings $k[t]/(t^m)$ with $m \geq 2$, in one variable over a field $k$. We compute their Milnor range cycle class groups when the field has sufficiently many elements. With some aids from rigid analytic geometry and the Gersten conjecture for the Milnor $K$-theory resolved by M. Kerz, we prove that the resulting cycle class groups are isomorphic to the Milnor $K$-groups of the truncated polynomial rings, generalizing a theorem of Nesterenko-Suslin and Totaro.
In this paper we address the question if, for points $P, Q \in \mathbb{P}^{2}$, $I(P)^{m} \star I(Q)^{n}=I(P \star Q)^{m+n-1}$ and we obtain different results according to the number of zero coordinates in $P$ and $Q$. Successively, we use our results to define the so called Hadamard fat grids, which are the result of the Hadamard product of two sets of collinear points with given multiplicities. The most important invariants of Hadamard fat grids, as minimal resolution, Waldschmidt constant and resurgence, are then computed.
We introduce a new algebraic-cycle model for the motivic cohomology theory of truncated polynomials $k[t]/(t^m)$ in one variable. This approach uses ideas from the deformation theory and non-archimedean analysis, and is distinct from the approaches via cycles with modulus. We compute the groups in the Milnor range when the base field is of characteristic $0$, and prove that they give the Milnor $K$-groups of $k[t]/(t^m)$, whose relative part is the sum of the absolute Kähler differential forms.
