Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of products of ideals (Q1774183)

Let \(R\) be a polynomial ring over a field \(K\), \(\mathfrak m\) its maximal homogeneous ideal, \(I\) a homogeneous ideal of \(R\) and \(M\) a finitely generated graded \(R\)-module. The Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of \(M\) is an integer which measures the complexity of the syzygies of \(M\). More precisely, if \(\cdots \rightarrow F_1\rightarrow F_0\rightarrow M \rightarrow 0\) is a minimal free resolution then \(\text{reg}(M)\) is the largest integer \(j\) such that \(R(-i-j)\) occurs as a direct summand of \(F_i\) for some \(i\geq 0\). By definiton, \(\text{reg}(M)\geq \) the maximum degree of a minimal generator of \(M\). If \(M\) is generated by homogeneous elements of the same degree \(d\) and \(\text{reg}(M)=d\) one says that \(M\) has a linear resolution. This paper is a pot-pourri of results and counter-examples regarding the following question: When is \(\text{reg}(IM)\leq \text{reg}(I)+\text{reg}(M)\)? The authors show that: (1) The inequality holds if \(I\) is generated by an \(R\)-regular sequence which is almost \(M\)-regular; the first condition alone does not suffice. (2) The inequality is satisfied if \(\dim R/I\leq 1\). In this case, the proof follows the arguments of \textit{K. A. Chandler} [Commun. Algebra 25, 3773--3776 (1997; Zbl 0928.14033)]. (3) If \(I_1,\dots ,I_d\) are ideals of \(R\) generated by linear forms then \(\text{reg}(I_1\dots I_d)=d\). (4) If \(M\) has linear quotients, i.e., if \(M\) admits a minimal system of generators \(x_1,\dots ,x_k\) such that, putting \(M_i=Rx_1+\cdots +Rx_i\), \(M_i/M_{i-1}\simeq R/\)an ideal generated by linear forms, then \(\text{reg}(M)=\) the maximum degree of a minimal generator of \(M\). (5) A polymatroidal ideal of \(R\) (a monomial ideal of a special kind) has linear quotients and the product of two polymatroidal ideals is polymatroidal. (6) If \(X\) is a generic Hankel matrix and \(t_1,\dots ,t_p\) are positive integers then the product \(I_{t_1}(X)\dots I_{t_p}(X)\) has a linear resolution. Here \(I_t(X)\) denotes the ideal generated by the \(t\times t\) minors of \(X\). For the proof of this result, the authors use some facts from \textit{A. Conca} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 152, 65--74 (2000; Zbl 0985.13007)] to show that the initial ideal of the above product with respect to the lexicographic order has linear quotients.