Chudnovsky's conjecture for very general points in \(\mathbb{P}_k^N\) (Q1694582)

This paper deals with a problem about \textit{fat points} in projective space, namely, given a finite set of points \(P_1,\dots, P_n \in {\mathbb P}^N_k\), what is the minimum degree \(\alpha_m\) of a hypersurface passing through \(P_1,\dots, P_n\) with multippliicity at least \(m\)? This amounts to asking which is the initial degree of the ideal \(I^{(m)}\), where \(I\) is the homogeneou radical ideal of the scheme \(X\subset {\mathbb P}^N_k\) given by the \(n\) simple points. If \(\alpha_m = \alpha_m(X)\), and \(\alpha(X) = \alpha_1(X)\), a long standing conjecture by Chudnovsky states that for any reduced finite scheme \(X\subset {\mathbb P}^N_k\) of points, we have \({\alpha_m \over m} \geq {\alpha +N-1\over N}\). This conjecture is known to be true in several cases: for \(N=2\) (any \(X\)); for \(X\) made of general points when \(N=3\) and char\( k = 0\); for any set of less then \(N+1\) points in general position (any \(N\)). In this paper, the conjecture is proved in the following three cases: when \(k\) is algebrically closed, char\( k = 0\) and \(X\) is made of very general points; with the same assumptions on \(k\) for every set \(X\) of points in \({\mathbb P}^N_{k(z)}\); if \(X\) is contained in a quadric (no assumptions on \(k\)). Moreover, if \(k = {\mathbb C}\), the conjecture is proved to hold for every set of point \(X\) when \(m \geq N-1\).