On the Hilbert function of one-dimensional local complete intersections (Q397875)

The sequences that occur as Hilbert functions of standard graded algebras \(A\) are well understood by Macaulay's theorem; those that occur for graded complete intersections are elementary and were known classically. However, much less is known in the local case, once the dimension of \(A\) is greater than zero, or the embedding dimension is three or more. Using an extension to the power series ring \(R\) of Gröbner bases with respect to local degree orderings, the paper characterize the Hilbert functions \(H\) of one-dimensional quadratic complete intersections \(A=R/I,I=(f,g)\), of type \((2,2)\) that is, that are quotients of the power series ring \(R\) in three variables by a regular sequence \(f,g\) whose initial forms are linearly independent and of degree 2. The paper also give a structure theorem up to analytic isomorphism of \(A\) for the minimal system of generators of \(I\), given the Hilbert function. More generally, when the type of \(I\) is \((2,b)\) the authors are able to give some restrictions on the Hilbert function. In this case we can also prove that the associated graded algebra of \(A\) is Cohen-Macaulay if and only if the Hilbert function of \(A\) is strictly increasing.