Monomial ideals whose depth function has any given number of strict local maxima (Q2255151)

Let \(I\) be an ideal of a polynomial ring \(R\). The \textit{depth function} of \(I\) is the numerical function \(f(t)=\mathrm{depth}(R/I^t)\). This function is known, through work of \textit{M. Brodmann} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 74, 16--18 (1979; Zbl 0395.13008)], to be eventually constant. In an earlier paper, two of the authors, Herzog and Hibi, showed that for any non-decreasing eventually constant numerical function \(f\) there exists a monomial ideal whose depth function agrees with \(f\) for all \(t\). It is unknown if any eventually constant numerical function is the depth function of some monomial ideal. This paper gives an explicit family of examples of monomial ideals that shows that for any fixed \(n\), the depth function, \(\mathrm{depth}(R/I^t)\) can have exactly \(n\) strict local maxima. More precisely, for any fixed \(n\), the authors define a monomial ideal \(I\) with \(2n+6\) monomial generators in a polynomial ring with \(2n+4\) variables and then show that the depth of \(R/I^t\) is \(0\) when \(t\) is odd and at most \(2n+1\), is \(1\) when \(t\) is even and at most \(2n\), and is \(2\) for all other values of \(t\). In showing that the depth is \(0\) for low odd powers, the authors prove that the unique homogeneous maximal ideal of \(R\) is an associated prime of \(R/I^t\) for odd \(t\) at most \(2n+1\). Thus they produce a prime ideal that, for powers less than \(2n+1\), is in \(\mathrm{Ass}(R/I^t)\) precisely when \(t\) is odd. They note the comparison to an example published by McAdam, credited to Sathaye, that has a similar property. The authors also note that for this family of examples, the depth is constant for powers greater than the number of variables. They comment that this property holds for all known examples and speculate that if \(I\) is a monomial ideal in a ring with \(n\) variables, the depth of \(R/I^t\) might be constant for \(t \geq n\).