The primary components of and integral closures of ideals in 3-dimensional regular local rings (Q1084137)

It is well-known that for a height two prime ideal \(P\) of a 3-dimensional regular local ring \(R\), \(P^ n=P^{(n)}\) or \((P^ n)_ a=P^{(n)}\) for all large \(n\) if and only if \(P\) is a complete intersection [cf. \textit{R. C. Cowsik} and \textit{M. V. Nori}, J. Indian Math. Soc., New Ser. 40, 217--222 (1976; Zbl 0437.14028) and the author, Ill. J. Math. 26, 121--137 (1982; Zbl 0479.13008)]. If \(P\) is not a complete intersection, the author proves the following statements: (i) \(P^ n\neq P^{(n)}\) for any \(n\geq 2\), (ii) \((P^ n)_ a\neq P^{(n)}\) for \(n>(8e- 7)^{1/2}-5\), where \(e\) is the multiplicity of \(R/P\), (iii) \(P^{(2)}\) may have an arbitrarily large number of minimal generators. Moreover, he also studies the problem whether the product of two integrally closed ideals is integrally closed.