Characteristic polyhedron and combinatorial blow-ups (Q920158)

If \(J\) is an ideal of regular local ring \(R\) and \(u=(u_1,\ldots,u_d)\) a regular \(R/J\)-sequence Hironaka defines a polyhedron \(\Delta(J,u)\) in \(\mathbb{R}^d\) which gives important information for the desingularization of \(\mathrm{Spec}(R/J)\): In the article under review the author gives a construction of the graded rings associated to the sides of the polyhedron \(\Delta(J,u)\) which only depends on the ring \(A=R/J\) and the ideals \(u_1A,\ldots,u_dA\). By looking at a blowing-up of \(\mathrm{Spec}(A[t])\), that is the same as looking at a deformation of \(\mathrm{Spec}(A)\), he gives a geometric interpretation of these rings. Let \(R\) be a regular local ring, \(s=(s_1,\ldots,s_q)\) a regular system of parameters of \(R\) and \(L\) a linear form on \(\mathbb{R}^q\) with coefficients in \(\mathbb{N}^*\), then \(L\) and \(s\) define a discrete valuation \(v_{L,s}\) on \(R\) and a graded ring \(\mathrm{gr}_{L,s}(R)\). The author associates with \((R,s,L)\) a finite family of rings \(R(i,j)\), with \(R(0,0)=A[t]\), and a sequence \[ Z(0,0)\leftarrow Z(1,1)\leftarrow\cdots\leftarrow Z((i,j)_ - )\leftarrow Z(i,j)\leftarrow\cdots\leftarrow Z(\ell,b(\ell))=Z(L) \] where \(Z(i,j)=\mathrm{Spec}(R(i,j))\) is an open subset of a blow-up of \(Z((i,j)_ -)\) along an ideal, such that the graded ring \(\mathrm{gr}_{L,s}(R)\) is the function ring of the exceptional divisor \(E\) of the morphism from \(Z(L)=\mathrm{Spec}(R(L))\) into \(Z(0,0)=\mathrm{Spec}(R(0,0))\). The author generalises this construction in the case of a finite family of linear forms \(L_i\), \(i\in I\), and obtains an isomorphism between the graded ring \(\mathrm{gr}_{\Delta,s}(R)\), which depends on the polyhedron \(\Delta =\{x=(x_1,\ldots,x_q):\;L_i(x)\ge 1,\text{ for all } i\in I\},\) and the ring \(R(I)/tR(I)\), where \(R(I)=\cap_{i\in I}R(L_i)\). Let \(A\) be a local ring, \(v=(v_1,\ldots,v_d)\) a ``good'' sequence of the maximal ideal \(\mathfrak M\) of \(A\), \(\Lambda\) a linear form on \(\mathbb{R}^d\) whose coefficients \(\lambda_j\) are in \(\mathbb{Q}^*_+\) and \(N\) a positive integer such that \(N\lambda_j\in\mathbb{N}\), for all \(j\). From this situation the author constructs in the same way a sequence of affine schemes \(X(i,j)\), \(X(i,j)\) being an affine open subset of a blow-up of \(X((i,j)_-)\), but now the length \(\ell (\Lambda,s)\) of the sequence could be infinite. In the case \(A=R/J\), where \(R\) is a regular local ring, and if \(u\) is picked up from \(v\), he links the image \(\Lambda (\Delta (J,u))=[a,+\infty [\) to the length \(\ell (\Lambda,N)\). If \(a\ge \lambda_j\), for all j, he shows that the sequence \(X(i,j)\) is obtained from the sequence \(Z(i,j)\). If the linear form \(\Lambda\) defines a side of the characteristic polyhedron \(\Delta(J,u)\) associated to the singularity \(\mathrm{Spec}(A)\) such that \(a\ge \sup(\lambda_j)\), the author deduces from the above result that the graded ring associated to this face can be obtained from the ring \(A\), independently of the embedding \(\mathrm{Spec}(A)\subset \mathrm{Spec}(R)\).