No label defined (Q4939592)

The graded Betti numbers of a finite set of general points on a projective variety \(X\subseteq \mathbb{P}_k^n\) over an algebraically closed field \(k\) carry information about the geometry of the embedding. If the set is large enough, the Betti diagram consists of two parts: At the top one recovers the Betti diagram of \(X\), and at the bottom there are two non-trivial rows whose entries can be calculated in terms of the Hilbert polynomial of \(X\) and the dimension of the ambient space. The author proves a conjecture of \textit{S. Lvovski} [``On graded Betti numbers for finite subsets of curves'', preprint MPI 97-31 (Max-Planck-Institut, Bonn 1997)] which says that the numbers in the two bottom rows of the Betti diagram vary periodically if one adds general points to a finite subset of a curve \(X\). The idea of the proof of this result is that the bottom lines of the Betti diagram are the same for linearly equivalent sets of points, and that by adding a general hyperplane section one gets in fact points with general Betti numbers. Another proof of the same result has been obtained by \textit{E. Ballico} [Ann. Pol. Math. 69, No. 3, 283-286 (1998; Zbl 0934.14025)]. Then the author uses his result to study an analogue of the minimal resolution conjecture for general sets of points on curves. He finds a connection with a question studied by \textit{M. Raynaud} [Bull. Soc. Math. Fr. 110, 103-125 (1982; Zbl 0505.14011)]. Finally, the author shows a certain extension of the periodicity theorem to general finite subsets of higher dimensional varieties.