Some uniform properties of 2-dimensional local rings (Q1355497)

Let \(R\) denote a Noetherian ring. The strong uniform Artin-Rees property says that for any pair of finitely generated modules \(N \subset M\) there is an integer \(k = k(N,M)\) such that for all ideals \(I \subset R\) and all \(n \geq k\) one has \(I^nM \cap N = I^{n-k}(I^kM \cap N).\) According to \textit{A. J. Duncan} and \textit{L. O'Carroll} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 394, 203-207 (1989; Zbl 0659.13002)], it follows that \(k\) may be chosen to be independent of all maximal ideals of \(R\) for \(R\) an excellent Noetherian ring. Moreover it was open whether the strong Artin-Rees property does hold in general. Related to his work on the uniform Artin-Rees property, \textit{C. Huneke} [Invent. Math. 107, No. 1, 203-223 (1992; Zbl 0756.13001)] posed the relation type conjecture: Let \((R, \mathfrak m)\) denote an excellent Noetherian local ring. Does there exist a uniform bound for the relation types of parameter ideals? The relation type of an ideal denotes the largest degree in a minimal generating set of the ideal that presents the Rees ring \(R[It].\) It follows that for an ideal \(I \subset R\) of a regular local ring \(R\) the relation type conjecture holds for \(R/I\) provided \(I \subset R\) satisfies the strong uniform Artin-Rees property. By the Cohen structure theorem this says that the relation type conjecture is a weaker version of the strong uniform Artin-Rees property. The main results of the paper are the following: There is an example which shows that the strong Artin-Rees property does not hold in general, even for regular local rings. The relation type conjecture is true for any two-dimensional local ring. Call the postulation number of an \(\mathfrak m\)-primary ideal \(I\) the largest number \(k\) such that Hilbert function and Hilbert polynomial of \(I\) do not coincide. It is shown that in a two-dimensional local ring the postulation number is uniformly bounded for parameter ideals.