New methods for determining speciality of linear systems based at fat points in \(\mathbb P^n\) (Q2376550)

Let \(\mathbb{P}^n\) be the \(n\)-dimensional projective space (over a field of characteristic \(0\)). Consider \(r\) general points \(p_1, \dots, p_r \in \mathbb{P}^n\) and a \(r\)-uple \(m=(m_1,\dots, m_r)\) of positive integers. It is a classical task to compute the dimension of the linear system \(V^n(d,m)\) of hypersurfaces of degree \(d\) passing by \(p_i\) with multiplicity at least \(m_i\) (\(i=1, \dots, r\)). This computation is, in fact, a matrix rank computation and the paper under review (extending previous methods by Dumnicki) proposes a method for it based on partitioning the monomial basis of the vector space \(H^0({\mathcal O}_{\mathbb{P}^n}(d))\) of degree \(d\) homogeneous polynomials. Several applications of the method are described: (1) There is a natural \textit{expected dimension} for these linear systems, say: \[ \dim V ^n(d,m)=\max \{ {d+n \choose n} -\Sigma{m_i+n-1 \choose n}, 0\} \] and \((n,d,m)\) is \textit{special} when the dimension of \(V^n(d,m)\) fails to be the expected one. In Section 4 new algorithms for determining speciality are provided. (2) The \textit{multipoint Seshadri constant} of \(\mathbb{P}^2\) at \(p_1, \dots, p_r\) is the infimum over the set of plane curves \(C\) of the quotients of the degree of \(C\) over the sum of the mutliplicities of \(C\) at \(p_i\). New lower bounds on multipont Seshadri constants of \(\mathbb{P}^2\) are produced (see Figure 5.2). (3) A classical conjecture in the field is Nagata's one: if \(m_1=\dots =m_r=M\) and \(r>9\) then \(d^2 \leq rM^2\) implies \(\dim V^2(d,m)=0\). This conjecture was generalized to any dimension by Iarrobino (see Section 5.2 for details) and is known to be true in the perfect-power cases (cf. \textit{L. Evain} [J. Algebra 285, No. 2, 516--530 (2005; Zbl 1077.14012)]). A new proof of this result is also given.