Stability of depth and Cohen-Macaulayness of integral closures of powers of monomial ideals (Q1696180)

Let \(R=k[x_1,\dots,x_r]\) be a polynomial ring over a field \(k\) and \(I\) be a monomial ideal in \(R\). \textit{M. Brodmann} [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 86, 35--39 (1979; Zbl 0413.13011)] proved that \(depth R/I^n\) is constant for \(n\gg 0\). The smallest integer \(m>0\) such that \(\mathrm{depth } R/I^n=\mathrm{depth }R/I^m\) for all \(n\geq m\) is called the index of depth stability and is denoted by \(\mathrm{dstab}(I)\). In this paper, the authors are interested in bounding the index of depth stability \(\overline{\mathrm{dstab}}(I)\) for integral closures, which is defined as the smallest integer \(m>0\) such that \(\mathrm{depth }R/\overline{I^n}=\mathrm{depth }R/\overline{I^m}\) for all \(n\geq m\). The authors give an upper bound on \(\overline{\mathrm{dstab}}(I)\) in terms of \(r\) and the maximal generating degree \(d(I)\) of \(I\) for any monomial ideal \(I\). In this paper, they improve the main result of \textit{T. N. Trung} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 116, No. 1, 44--54 (2009; Zbl 1160.13014)] by giving an essentially better bound. As an application, they classify all monomial ideals such that \(R/\overline{I^n}\) is a Cohen-Macaulay ring for all \(n\geq 1\). It turns out that only equimultiple ideals have this property. In the case of square-free monomial ideals, the authors derive a criterion for the Cohen-Macaulayness of \(R/\overline{I^n}\) for some fixed \(n\geq 3\). This criterion is exactly the one for the Cohen-Macaulayness of \(\mathrm{depth }R/I^n\) given in [\textit{N. Terai} and \textit{Ngo Viet Trung}, Adv. Math. 229, No. 2, 711--730 (2012; Zbl 1246.13032)].