On stable ideals (Q1076742)

Let A be an equidimensional Cohen-Macaulay semi-local ring of dimension \(d>0\) and let I be an open ideal of A. Let \(e_ k\) (0\(\leq k\leq d)\) be the normalized Hilbert-Samuel coefficients of I, i.e., \(P_ I(n)=\sum^{d}_{k=0}(-1)^ ke_ k\left( \begin{matrix} n+d-k\\ d- k\end{matrix} \right)\quad is\) the Hilbert-Samuel polynomial of I. I is said to be stable if \(\ell (A/I^{n+1})=e_ 0\left( \begin{matrix} n+d\\ d\end{matrix} \right)-e_ 1\left( \begin{matrix} n+d-1\\ d-1\end{matrix} \right)\quad for\) all \(n\geq 0\) where \(\ell\) is the length function. The main result is that if \(\ell (A/I)=e_ 0-e_ 1\) and \(e_ k=0\) for \(k\geq 3\), then I is stable. From this it immediately follows that an ideal is stable if and only if \(P_ I(n)=e_ 0\left( \begin{matrix} n+d-1\\ d\end{matrix} \right)+\ell (A/I)\left( \begin{matrix} n+d-1\\ d-1\end{matrix} \right)\).