Block Stanley decompositions. I: Elementary and gnomon decompositions (Q2254786)

Let \(S\) be a polynomial ring over a field \(k\), with a fixed set of variables \(x_1,\ldots,x_n\). For a monomial ideal \(I\) of \(S\), it is of interest to find Stanley decompositions of the \(k\)-vector space \(S/I\), for example in the theory of Stanley depth. Stanley decompositions may be very long, hence the authors of this paper introduce block decomposition, which is geometrical in nature, as a compact version of Stanley decomposition. Denote by \(\text{Mon}(S)\) the set of all monomials in \(S\). Identify each monic monomial in \(S\) with a unique integral point in \(\mathbb{Z}_{\geq 0}^n\). A \textit{block} is a subset of \(\mathbb{Z}_{\geq 0}^n\) consisting of points belonging to a box \([a_1,b_1]\times[a_2,b_2] \times \cdots \times [a_n,b_n]\), where \(a_i\in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 0}, b_i \in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 0} \cup \{\infty\}\). By convention, \([a,\infty]\) is the half-open interval \([a,\infty)\). Let \(M\) be a subset of \(\text{Mon}(S)\), then a \textit{block decomposition} of \(M\) is a way to write \(M\) as a disjoint union of blocks. A \textit{Stanley block} is a block for which for all \(i=1,\ldots,n\), we have \(b_i \in \{a_i,\infty\}\). Stanley blocks naturally correspond to the usual, algebraic notion of Stanley spaces. The block decomposition of \(M\) is a \textit{Stanley decomposition} if all the blocks appearing in the union are Stanley ones. The primitive example of a block Stanley decomposition is the following: Let \(I\) be a monomial ideal of \(S\), and \(M\) be the set of monic monomials in \(S/I\). Then any (block) Stanley decomposition of \(M\) is a Stanley decomposition of the \(k\)-vector space \(S/I\) using Stanley spaces. Each block decomposition can be refined to a unique Stanley decomposition (Algorithm 2.2). The authors consider various measures of complexity of block decompositions, like compressibility, or minimality. In a sequel, they will consider organized and stacked decompositions. Let \(I\) be a monomial ideal of \(S\), and \(M\) the set of monic monomials in \(S/I\). The problem is to find block decompositions of \(M\). In the present paper, the authors define elementary and gnomon decompositions. Elementary decomposition is arguably the simplest block decomposition. On the other hand, gnomon decomposition has the advantage that one can find it by induction on the number of generators of \(I\). The authors prove an analogue of Soleyman-Jahan's characterization of Stanley decompositions which correspond to a prime filtration, by characterizing block decompositions which correspond to the so-clalled \textit{subprime filtrations}. They show that elementary and gnomon decompositions correspond to subprime filtrations.