The ACM property for unions of lines in \(\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^2\) (Q2031535)

The authors study the arithmetic Cohen-Macaulay (aCM) property for some subvarieties \(Z\) of codimension \(2\) in a product of projective space, mainly for curves in \(\mathbb P^1\times \mathbb P^2\). \(Z\) is aCM when its coordinate ring is Cohen-Macaulay. The aCM property has been deeply studied for curves in \(\mathbb P^n\), but very few is known for curves in multiprojective spaces. The authors focus on curves which split in a union of lines. There are two families of lines in \(\mathbb P^1\times \mathbb P^2\): lines of type \(\mathbb P^1\times\{p\}\), and lines contained in a plane \(\{q\}\times\mathbb P^2\). The authors call them vertical and horizontal lines, respectively. The main result concerns unions of lines \(Z\) in which some line has a multiple structure. When the variety of horizontal lines in \(Z\) is non-empty, reduced, and no pairs of such lines belong to the same plane of type \((0,1)\), then the authors prove that \(Z\) is aCM if and only if any pair of horizontal lines in \(Z\) are connected by a vertical line \(L\) having multiplicity \(n-1\) in \(Z\), where \(n\) is the number of horizontal lines of \(Z\) met by \(L\).