Equigenerated Gorenstein ideals of codimension three (Q6165274)

This paper concerns the structure of a homogeneous Gorenstein ideal \(I\) of codimension three in a standard-graded polynomial ring \(R = \pmb k [x_1,\dots, x_n]\) over an infinite field \(\pmb k\), assuming that \(I\) is minimally generated by \(r\) homogeneous forms of degree \(d\). According to the Buchsbaum-Eisenbud structure theorem, \(r\) is odd, \(I\) is generated by the maximal order Pfaffians of an \(r\times r\) alternating matrix \(X\) and each entry of \(X\) is a homogeneous form of degree \(\frac{2d}{r-1}\). One of the results in the paper under review is that given the data \(\pmb k\), \(n\), \(r\), and \(d\), as above, then there exists a matrix \(X\) such that the maximal order Pfaffians of \(X\) generate a codimension three ideal as above and the ideal generated by the entries of \(X\) is primary to the maximal homogeneous ideal of \(R\). The paper studies when the ideal generated by a general set of homogeneous forms of the same degree is a Gorenstein ideal. A conjecture is made; special cases are established. This paper also considers the \((x_1^m ,\dots, x_n^m)\)-colon problem. It is known that any homogeneous Gorenstein ideal of codimension \(n\) in \(\pmb k[x_1,\dots,x_n]\) can be obtained as a colon ideal \((x_1^m,\dots,x_n^m):f\), for some integer \(m\ge 1\) and a form \(f\). It is natural to ask if there is a more definite relation between \(f\) and the ideal \(I\). It is also natural to ask for a characterization as to when the resulting Gorenstein ideal is equigenerated in terms of the exponent \(m\) and the form \(f\).