Hilbert coefficients of integrally closed ideals (Q1902150)

Let \((A,m)\) be a Cohen-Macaulay local ring of dimension \(d\) and let \(I\) be an \(m\)-primary ideal. We define \(H_I (n) = \text{length} (A/I^{n + 1})\) for \(n \geq 0\). There exists a polynomial \(P_I (n)\) of the form \(e_0 {n + d \choose d} - e_1 {n + d - 1 \choose d - 1} + \cdots + (-1)^d e_d\) such that \(P_I (n) = H_I (n)\) for all large \(n\), where \(e_i = e_i (I)\) in \(\mathbb{Z} \). We put \(\widetilde I=\bigcup_n (I^{n + 1} : I^n)\). In section two we assume \(d = 2\) and \(A/m\) is infinite. Let \(Q\) be a minimal reduction of \(I\) and put \(j_i = \text{length} (\widetilde {I^{i + 1}}/ Q \widetilde {I}_i)\) for \(i = 0, 1, \dots\) The author shows (theorem 3) that \(e_1 (I)\), \(e_2 (I)\) and \(\sum_n \text{length} (A/ \widetilde {I^{n + 1}})t^n\) are expressed by using \(j_i\)'s. The main purpose of the paper is to study the behavior of \(e_i(I)\) when \(I\) is integrally closed with the aid of theorem 3 and its corollaries. In the following we assume \(d \geq 2\), \(A/m\) is infinite and \(I\) is integrally closed. The inequality \(e_2 (I) - e_1 (I) + e_0 (I) - \text{length} (A/I) \geq 0\) is established. Using this the author gives characterizations of \(I\) with \(e_2 (I) \leq 2\). In these cases \(e_3 (I) = \cdots = e_d (I) = 0\) and \(\text{gr}_I A\) is Cohen-Macaulay. It is also shown that \(I\) has the reduction number at most 2 if and only if \(P_I (0) = H_I (0)\) and \(P_I (1) = H_I (1)\).