On the length of generalized fractions. (Q1398161)

Let \((R,{m})\) be a Noetherian local ring and \(M\) a finitely generated \(R\)-module with \(\dim(M)=d.\) Let \((n_{1} , \ldots , n_{d})\) be a set of positive integers. If \((x_{1} , \ldots , x_{d})\) is a system of parameters of \(M\), the length of the generalized fraction \(1/({x_{1}}^{n_{1}} , \ldots , {x_{d}}^{n_{d}},1)\) may be considered as a function of \(n_{1} , \ldots , n_{d}.\) The question as to whether there exists a polynomial in \(d\) variables with rational coefficients equal to the length for \(n_{i}\) all large enough, was posed by \textit{R.Y. Sharp} and \textit{M. A. Hamieh} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 38, 323-336 (1985; Zbl 0578.13008)]. The answer was proved to be positive for \(\dim(R) \leq 2\) or when \(R\) is generalized Cohen-Macaulay in that paper. In the paper under review counterexamples are provided for the case where \(R\) has any dimension \(d \geq 3.\) Conditions on the system of parameters of a module \(M\) that prevent the length from being a polynomial for large \(n_i\) are also studied.