Classifying Hilbert functions of fat point subschemes in \(\mathbb{P}^2\) (Q1027130)

The study of Hilbert functions of 0-dimensional schemes of ``fat points'' in the plane is a problem which has a long history in Algebraic Geometry, and offers plenty of open problems which are related to many other issues in Mathematics. In this paper the question of how the possible Hilbert functions for a set of fat points \(m_1P_1+\dots +m_rP_r\) is related to the geometry of the simple points \(P_1,\dots ,P_r\) is studied (for \(r\leq 8\) or in the case when the points are on a conic). Configuration types of points are considered, i.e., equivalence classes of the set of \(r\)-tuples of distinct points in the plane given by the relation \(\{P_1,\dots ,P_r\} \cong \{P'_1,\dots ,P'_r\}\) if the schemes \(m_1P_1+\dots +m_rP_r\) and \(m_1P'_1+\dots +m_rP'_r\) have the same Hilbert function for all \(m_1,\dots ,m_r \in \mathbb{N}^r\). It was known that in the cases under study such configurations are finite in number (for \(r\geq 9\) this is no longer true). All such configuration types are determined in the paper for \(r=7\) (29 types) and \(r=8\) (143 types); the cases of \(r\leq 6\) and when points are on a conic have already been known. For every set of 8 (or fewer) points, given the Hilbert function of the reduced points, the results in the paper allow to compute the Hilbert function of \(m_1P_1+\dots +m_rP_r\) for each choice of the integers \(m_i\)'s; in the case when \(r\leq 6\) or the points lie on a conic, also the Betti numbers of such schemes can be computed. The study of configuration types is related to the study of combinatorial geometries (simple matroids) via formal configuration types, which are combinatorial objects defined on a set of points. Formal configuration types are representable when they correspond to configuration types of points in the plane. Here also formal configuration types are classified, and a new phenomenon appears with respect to the known cases for \(r\leq 6\): when treating the 7 points case it turns out that representability depends on the characteristic of the ground field, while for 8 points there are cases which are not representable at all (while for \(r\leq 6\) all cases are representable, in any characteristic).