Separators of points on algebraic surfaces (Q2504384)

For a finite set of points \(\mathbb{X}\) in \(\mathbb{P}^2\), the degree of a point \(P\) in \(\mathbb{X}\) is defined as the minimal degree of a curve containing \(\mathbb{X}\setminus\{P\}\), but not \(P\). The idea of the authors is to generalize this definition to sets of points on a projectively normal algebraic surface \(S\subseteq\mathbb{P}^n\) as follows: the degree \(\deg_{\mathbb{X},S}(P)\) of \(P\) in \(\mathbb{X}\) with respect to \(S\) is the least integer \(d\) such that there exists an arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay curve \(C\subset S\) which contains \(\mathbb{X}\setminus\{P\}\), but not \(P\). The main result of the paper relates \(\deg_{\mathbb{X},S}(P)\) to the usual degree of \(P\) when \(S\) is a surface of minimal degree. The authors also provide an example which shows that their formula does not hold on an arbitrary arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay surface \(S\).