The strong Rees property of powers of the maximal ideal and Takahashi-Dao's question (Q2219015)

For a local noetherian ring \((A,\mathfrak{m})\), the concept of \(\mathfrak{m}\)-full ideal was introduced by D. Rees and \textit{J. Watanabe} [Nagoya Math. J. 106, 101--111 (1987; Zbl 0623.13012)]. An \(\mathfrak{m}\)-primary ideal \(I\) is said to be \(\mathfrak{m}\)-full if there exists \(x \in \mathfrak{m}\) such that \((\mathfrak{m} I : x)=I\). They also proved that these ideals satisfy the ``Rees property''; that is, for every ideal \(J\) containing \(I\) we have \(\mu(J) \leq \mu(I)\), where \(\mu(I)\) denotes the minimal number of generators of \(I\). Motivated by an inequality of H. Dao relating the minimal number of generators \(\mu(I)\), the multiplicity \(e(I)\), and the Loewy length \(\ell\ell(I)=\min\{ n \mid \mathfrak{m}^n \subseteq I \}\), in this paper the authors introduce the notion of ``strong Rees property'' for an \(\mathfrak{m}\)-primary ideal \(I\) by requiring \(\mu(J) < \mu(I)\) for every ideal \(J\) strictly containing \(I\). If the depth of the associated graded ring \(G_\mathfrak{m}(A)\) is at least two, the authors prove that all the powers of the maximal ideal satisfy the strong Rees property, and, as an application, are able to answer a question of Takahashi and Dao. If \((A,\mathfrak{m})\) is a two-dimensional excellent normal local domain containing an algebraically closed field, then the following are equivalent: \begin{enumerate} \item the Rees algebra of the ideal \(\mathfrak{m}\) is a Cohen-Macaulay normal domain; \item the inequality \((\mu(I)-1)\ell\ell(I) \geq e(I)\) holds for every \(\mathfrak{m}\)-primary integrally closed ideal \(I\); \item the inequality \((\mu(I)-1)\ell\ell(I) \geq e(I)\) holds for every power \(I=\mathfrak{m}^r\) of the maximal ideal. \end{enumerate}