A local study of the fiber-full scheme (Q6054769)

The Hilbert scheme \(\mathrm{Hilb}^{p(t)} (\mathbb P^n)\) functorially parametrizes flat families of closed subschemes \(X \subset \mathbb P^n\) with Hilbert polynomial \(p(t)\) and has been intensively studied since its construction in the early 1960s. Given a Noetherian ring \(A\) with \(R = A[x_0, \dots, x_n]\) and a function \(g: \mathbb N \to \mathbb N\), \textit{M. Haiman} and \textit{B. Sturmfels} [J. Algebr. Geom. 13, No. 4, 725--769 (2004; Zbl 1072.14007)] introduced the \textit{multigraded Hilbert scheme} \(\mathrm{HS}^g_{R/A}\), which parametrizes homogeneous ideals \(I \subset R\) such that \([R/I]_{\nu}\) is a locally free \(A\)-module of rank \(g (\nu)\) for all \(\nu \in \mathbb N\), in other words, \(\mathrm{HS}^g_{R/A}\) parametrizes flat families of homogeneous ideals whose corresponding quotient rings have fixed Hilbert function. In earlier work the authors [``The fiber-full scheme'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2108.13986}] stratified the multigraded Hilbert scheme by considering both a Hilbert function \(g: \mathbb N \to \mathbb N\) and a tuple of functions \(\mathbf{h} = (h_0, \dots, h_{r+1}): \mathbb Z^{r+2} \to \mathbb N^{r+2}\), for which they constructed the \textit{fiber-full scheme} \(\mathrm{Fib}_{R/A}^{g, \mathbf{h}}\) parametrizing homogeneous ideals \(I \subset R\) such that \([R/I]_\nu\) is a locally free \(A\)-module of rank \(g (\nu)\) for all \(\nu \in \mathbb N\) and the local cohomology module \([H_{\mathfrak m}^i (R/I)]_{\nu}\) is locally free \(A\) of rank \(h_i (\nu)\) for all \(i \geq 0\) and \(\nu \in \mathbb Z\), where \(\mathfrak m = (x_0, \dots, x_n)\) is the irrelevant maximal ideal. Thus \(\mathrm{Fib}_{R/A}^{g, \mathbf{h}}\) parametrizes families of ideals with fixed local cohomology. Restricting to saturated ideals, one obtains a stratification of the usual Hilbert scheme by fixing all the cohomology dimensions. Now assume \(A = k\) is a field so that \(R=k[x_0, \dots, x_n]\) is a standard polynomial ring. Just as the tangent space to the usual Hilbert scheme at a point has a description in terms of the conormal sheaf of the corresponding closed subscheme, the authors describe the tangent space to \(\mathrm{Fib}_{R/k}^{g, \mathbf{h}}\). Specifically, if \(I_0 \subset R\) is a homogeneous ideal, then the tangent space at the point \([I_0]\) is described by \[ T_{[I_0]} \mathrm{Fib}_{R/k} = \{ \varphi \in [\mathrm{Hom} (I_0, R/I_0)]_0 : H^i_{\mathfrak m} (\varphi) = 0 \text{ for } i \geq 0 \}. \] They also give a description of a tangent-obstruction theory for the fiber-full scheme for infinitesimal deformations over Artin local rings with residue field \(k\), analogous to the one provided by \textit{R. Hartshorne} [Deformation theory. Berlin: Springer (2010; Zbl 1186.14004)] for the usual Hilbert scheme. As an application, let \(I \subset R[t]\) be a one-parameter family of homogeneous ideals. The authors prove that if \([\mathrm{Hom}_R (H^{i-1}_{\mathfrak m} (R/I_0), H^i_{\mathfrak m} (R/I_0))]_0 = 0\) for \(1 \leq i \leq r\), then \(\dim_k [H_{\mathfrak m} (R/I_0)]_{\nu} = \dim_k [H_{\mathfrak m} (R/I_1)]_{\nu}\) for all \(i \geq 0\) and \(\nu \in \mathbb Z\). This gives a condition on \(I_0\) under which the family must have constant local cohomology. For example, this applies when \(R/I_0\) is a Cohen-Macaulay ring. The authors give examples of non-Cohen-Macaulay rings where the result applies as well. This is of special interest when \(I_0 = \mathrm{in}_{>} (I) \subset R\) is the initial ideal with respect to a monomial order \(>\) on \(R\). In the latter setting, \textit{A. Conca} and \textit{M. Varbaro} [Invent. Math. 221, No. 3, 713--730 (2020; Zbl 1451.13076)] showed that the family must have constant local cohomology if \(I_0\) is squarefree.