On some local cohomology invariants of local rings (Q2509056)

Let \(R\) be an \(n\)-dimensional regular local ring with residue field \(k\) and \(I\) an ideal of \(R\). The author has been studying the structure of local cohomology modules \(H_I^i(R)\). Let \(A = R/I\) and \(d =\dim A\). In the preceding article [Invent. Math. 113, No. 1, 41--55 (1993; Zbl 0795.13004)], the author defined new invariants \(\lambda_{i,j}(A) = \dim_k \text{Ext}_R^i(k, H_I^{n-j}(R))\). He also showed that \(\lambda_{i,j}(A) < \infty\) and that \(\lambda_{i,j}(A) = 0\) if \(i > j\) or if \(j > d\). Therefore \(\lambda_{d,d}(A)\) is the first non-trivial invariant. In the present article, the author characterizes \(\lambda_{d,d}(A)\) if \(\text{ch} R > 0\). Let \(B\) be a local ring of dimension \(d\) and \(X = \text{Spec} B\). The graph \(\Gamma_B\) is defined as follows: The vertices of \(\Gamma_B\) are the \(d\)-dimensional irreducible components of \(X\). Two distinct vertices \(Y\) and \(Z\) are joined by an edge if \(\text{codim}(Y \cap Z, X) = 1\). Then \(\lambda_{d,d}(A)\) is equal to the number of connected components of \(\Gamma_B\) where \(B\) is the completion of the strict Henselization of of the completion of \(A\).