A note on primary powers of a prime ideal (Q793788)

Recently many papers have considered the connection between the analytic behavior and the local number of generators of an ideal. Possibly the nicest result is due to \textit{C. Huneke} [Am. J. Math. 104, 1043-1062 (1982; Zbl 0505.13003)]. Suppose R is a Gorenstein local domain and P is a prime ideal of R which is in the linkage class of a complete intersection. Assume further that the minimal number of generators of \(P_ Q\) is at most ht(Q) for every prime ideal Q which contains P. Then the associated graded ring \(gr_ P(R)=(R/P)\oplus(P/P^ 2)\oplus...\) is a domain if and only if \(\mu(P_ Q)\leq \max \{ht(P),\quad ht(Q)-1\}\) for every ideal Q containing P. (It is clear that if \(gr_ P(R)\) is a domain, then the symbolic power \(P^{(i)}\) is equal to \(P^ i\) for each i.) A weaker conclusion holds if one assumes that the Koszul homology \(H_ i(P,R)\) is Cohen-Macaulay instead of assuming that P is in the linkage class of a complete intersection. The present paper is set in the projective situation. Let \(A=R/P\) where P is a homogeneous prime ideal of the polynomial ring R. If P is an almost complete intersection, then \(P^{(i)}=P^ i\) for all i if and only if \(A_{(Q)}\), the ring of homogeneous elements of degree 0 in \(A_ Q\), is a complete intersection for all \(ht 1\) homogeneous prime ideals Q of A. The similarity between the two results rests on the observation that if P is a perfect almost complete intersection, then \(H_ i(P,R)\) is Cohen- Macaulay for all i and \(''\mu(P_ Q)\leq \max \{ht P,\quad ht Q\quad - \quad 1\}\) for all Q'' becomes \(''A_ Q\) is a complete intersection for all \(ht 1\) prime ideals Q''. Indeed, the present result is proved by showing that \(A_{(Q)}\) is a complete intersection if and only if \(A_ Q\) is.