Minimal depth of monomial ideals via associated radical ideals (Q2232140)

Let \(\mathbb{K}\) be a field and \(S=\mathbb{K}[x_1, \ldots,x_n]\) be the polynomial ring with \(n\) indeterminates \(x_1, \ldots, x_n\). Let \(I\) be a monomial ideal in \(S\) and \begin{align*} \mathrm{ass}(I)&=\{\mathfrak{p} \in \mathrm{Spec}(S) \colon \quad \mathfrak{p}=(0\colon u) \text{ for some } u\in S \},\\ \mathrm{assrad}(I) &= \{J \subset S \colon \quad J= \sqrt{I \colon u} \text{ for some monomial } u \notin I\} \end{align*} be the set of associated primes of \(I\) and associated radicals of \(I\) respectively. One of the aspects that makes the latter set important comes from the formula by [\textit{M. Hochster}, in: Ring Theory II, Proc. 2nd Okla. Conf. 1975, 171--223 (1977; Zbl 0351.13009)] as below: \[ \mathrm{depth}(S/I)=\min \{\mathrm{depth}(S/J) \colon \quad J \in \mathrm{assrad}(I)\}. \] In addition, several algebraic and combinatorial properties of monomial ideals are studied in terms of its associated radical ideals in [\textit{R. Jafari} and \textit{H. Sabzrou}, Commun. Algebra 47, No. 3, 1029--1042 (2019; Zbl 1411.05301)]. Note however that each associated radical ideal of a monomial ideal is an intersection of some of its associated prime ideals. Indeed if \(I=\cap_{i=1}^r \mathfrak{q}_i\) is the standard primary decomposiation of \(I\) where each \(\mathfrak{q}_i\) is \(\mathfrak{p}_i\)-primary, then \(\sqrt{I \colon u} = \cap_{u \notin \mathfrak{q}_i} \mathfrak{p}_i\). The paper under review studies monomial ideals \(I\) whose (all) partial intersections of its associated prime ideals belong to \(\mathrm{assrad}(I)\). Let \(I \subset S\) be a monomial ideal with \(|\mathrm{ass}(I)|=r\) and \(1 \leq t \leq r\). One say that \(I\) is \textit{complete \(t\)-assrad} if the intersection of any \(t\) ideals in \(\mathrm{ass}(I)\) belongs to \(\mathrm{assrad}(I)\) and if \(I\) is complete \(t\)-assrad for \(t = 1,\ldots, r\), then \(I\) is called \textit{complete assrad} ideal. One of the main results of the paper implies that \(I\) is a complete assrad ideal if \(\nu(I)=|\mathrm{ass}(I)|\). The converse holds if \(I\) is a square-free monomial ideal, in which case all symbolic powers \(I^{(k)}\) of \(I\) are also complete assrad ideals. Here the number \(\nu(I)\) is defined as follows: Let \(\mathcal{G}(I)\) be the unique minimal monomial set of generators of \(I\), \(\mathrm{supp}(I)=\{x_i \colon x_i \mid u \text{ for some } u \in \mathcal{G}(I)\}\) and \(I=\cap_{i=1}^r \mathfrak{q}_i\) be the standard primary decomposition of \(I\). The number \(\nu(I)\) is defined as: \[ \nu(I)=\min \{t \colon \; \exists 1 \leq i_1 < \cdots < i_t \leq r, \text{ s.t. } \mathrm{ht}(\sum_{j=1}^t \mathfrak{q}_{i_j})=|\mathrm{supp}(I)|\}. \] As a very interesting features of having complete assrad, the authors show that for a monomial ideal \(I\) which has complete assrad, the ring \(S/I\) has minimal depth, i.e. \(\mathrm{depth} (S/I)= n-|\mathrm{supp}(I)|-1+\nu(I)\). Note that if \(I\) has minimal depth, then \(I\) satisfies Stanley's inequality \(\mathrm{sdepth}(I)\geq \mathrm{depth}(I)\). Thus ideals with complete assrad satisfy Stanley's inequality. Following this motivation, the authors further provide more classes of monomial ideals which have minimal depth but do not necessarily have complete assrad. Another main theorem of the paper leads to a criteria for the Cohen-Macaulay property of \(S/I\), where I is a complete \(2\)-assrad monomial ideal. Indeed the authors prove that: {Theorem} Let \(I\) be an unmixed monomial ideal with complete \(2\)-assrad. Then the following statements are equivalent: \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] \(S/I\) is Cohen-Macaulay. \item[(ii)] \(S/I\) satisfies Serre's condition \(S_2\) \item[(iii)] All associated radical ideals of \(I\) are strongly connected. \item[(iv)] \(S/J\) is Cohen-Macaulay for \(J\in \mathrm{assrad}(I)\). \item[(v)] \(I\) is a clean. \item[(vi)] All associated radical ideals of \(I\) are clean. \end{itemize} In the last section of the paper, the authors investigate the conditions under which the symbolic powers of a square-free monomial ideal is complete (\(t\)-)assrad ideal.