The weak Lefschetz property, monomial ideals, and lozenges (Q1928910)

Let \(K\) be an infinite field and let \(R = K[x_1,\dots,x_n]\) be the graded polynomial ring over \(K\). A standard graded artinian algebra \(A = R/I\) has the \textit{Weak Lefschetz Property (WLP)} if, for a general linear form \(\ell\), the multiplication \(\times \ell : A_i \rightarrow A_{i+1}\) has maximal rank for all choices of \(i\). This property has been studied extensively, and connections have been found to many other topics; see the paper [``A tour of the Weak and Strong Lefschetz Properties'', \url{arXiv:1109.5718}] by the second author and the reviewer for a broad overview. In particular, many authors have found striking connections between this property and different problems in combinatorics, and this paper continues this study. Throughout this paper, we assume that \(R = K[x,y,z]\) and that \(I\) is an ideal of the form \((x^{\alpha+t}, y^{\beta+t}, z^{\gamma+t}, x^\alpha y^\beta z^\gamma)\), where \(0 < t\) and \(0 \leq \alpha \leq \beta \leq \gamma\). This makes the quotient \(A\) into a level Artinian monomial almost complete intersection. The second author, together with Miró-Roig and the reviewer, had formed a conjecture about when such algebras have the WLP (independently of the characteristic) and gave a partial answer. In the present paper the authors continue this work, giving some very nice formulae for a certain determinant whose vanishing establishes the failure of WLP. Interesting examples arise, for instance one where the WLP holds in all characteristics except 2, 3, 5, 11, 13, 19, 23, 29 and 5011. The aforementioned determinant also counts certain lozenge tilings of a hexagon, and this connection has been extensively studied by the authors in subsequent work. As a final consequence of their work on these algebras, the authors show that their Hilbert functions must be peaked strictly unimodal.