The behavior of Stanley depth under polarization (Q491982)

Let \(R\) be a polynomial ring in \(n\) variables over a field \(K\) and \(M\) be \(\mathbb{Z}^n\)-graded \(R\)-module. In 1982, Stanley conjectured that \(\mathrm{depth}(M)\leq \mathrm{sdepth}(M)\). Stanley's depth conjecture is claimed to be false in general [\textit{A. Duval} et al., ``A non-partitionable Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complex'', preprint, \url{arXiv:1504.04279}]. The main result of this paper gives a positive answer to a conjecture by \textit{J. Herzog} [Lect. Notes Math. 2083, 3--45 (2013; Zbl 1310.13001)] as follows: Let \(J\subsetneq I\subset R\) be monomial ideals and \(J^p, I^p\subset R^p\) be their polarizations. Then \[ \mathrm{sdepth} I/J-\mathrm{depth} I/J=\mathrm{sdepth} I^p/J^p-\mathrm{depth} I^p/J^p. \] This result immediately reduces the Stanley's depth conjecture for modules of the form \(I/J\) to the squarefree case. As another consequence of it, we get that Stanley's depth conjecture for modules of the form \(R/I\) is equivalent to Stanley's conjecture that every Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complex is partitionable.