On the uniformity of zero-dimensional complete intersections (Q2438016)

D. Eisenbud, M. Green, and J. Harris formulated several conjectures extending the classical Cayley-Bacharach Theorem for finite sets of points in \(\mathbb{P}^n\). Their Conjecture, called the General Cayley-Bacharach (GCB) Conjecture, claims that subschemes of zero-dimensional complete intersections in \(\mathbb{P}^n\) have special Hilbert functions. In this paper, the authors begin by showing that it is equivalent to a statement about the region of uniformity of a zero-dimensional complete intersection \(X\) in \(\mathbb{P}^n\). They slice the GCB Conjecture up into several more manageable intervals. They prove the conjecture in the first of these intervals by comparing the Hilbert function of a subscheme \(Y\) of the desired kind to the Hilbert function of a complete intersecion subscheme having the same \(a\)-invariant. The necessary inequalities are obtained by combining Macaulay's Growth Theorem for Hilbert functions and Gotzmann's Persistence Theorem. Next they prove the conjecture in the last interval using liaison, and in some other cases using specific methods. Altogether, these results are sufficient to establish the GCB Theorem for zero-dimensional complete intersections in \(\mathbb{P}^2\), in \(\mathbb{P}^3\), and for a number of cases in \(\mathbb{P}^4\). In the last section they generalize to zero-dimensional level schemes, a uniformity result which was discussed in the following papers: [\textit{L. Gold} et al., J. Pure Appl. Algebra 196, No. 1, 91--99 (2005; Zbl 1070.14027); \textit{J. P. Hansen}, Appl. Algebra Eng. Commun. Comput. 14, No. 3, 175--185 (2003; Zbl 1039.94014)]. They improve the bounds for the minimal distance of generalized Reed-Muller codes given in those papers, and illustrate the improvements given by the GCB Theorem (resp. the GCB Conjecture) with several examples.