Linkage and sums of ideals (Q4382987)

Let \(R\) be a regular local ring which contains a field. Grade 2 perfect ideals and grade 3 Gorenstein ideals are examples of licci ideals (that is, ideals which are in the linkage class of a complete intersection). All licci ideals are strongly Cohen-Macaulay (that is, each homology module of the Koszul complex on a generating set of the ideal is Cohen-Macaulay) and strongly unobstructed (that is, the twisted conormal module, \(I\otimes\omega\), is Cohen-Macaulay, where \(\omega\) is the canonical module of \(R/I)\). Furthermore, before the present paper appeared, most of the known examples of ideals which are strongly Cohen-Macaulay and strongly unobstructed were also licci. However, the present paper produces families of non-licci ideals which satisfy the previously listed homological properties of licci ideals. Indeed, if \(I\) and \(J\) are transversal \((I\cap J=IJ)\) licci ideals which are not complete intersections, then \(I+ J\) is strongly Cohen-Macaulay, strongly unobstructed, and not licci. The present paper was inspired by \textit{B. Ulrich}'s paper ``Sums of linked ideals'' [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 318, No. 1, 1-42 (1990; Zbl 0694.13014)]. Among other things, Ulrich proved that the sum of geometrically linked licci is also licci. (Such a sum was shown by Peskine and Szpiro to be Gorenstein).