Symbolic powers of polymatroidal ideals (Q6924564)

A matroid is a fundamental object in combinatorics. A matroidal ideal is the monomial ideal generated by the monomials corresponding to the bases of a matroid. \textit{J. Herzog} and \textit{T. Hibi} [J. Algebr. Comb. 16, No. 3, 239--268 (2002; Zbl 1012.05046)] generalized this notion by introducing polymatroidal ideals, defined as monomial ideals whose minimal generators satisfy certain exchange properties analogous to those of matroid bases. They proved that products of polymatroidal ideals are again polymatroidal, and that all polymatroidal ideals have linear resolutions. In particular, every power of a polymatroidal ideal has a linear free resolution.\N\NMuch less is known about the symbolic powers of polymatroidal ideals; in fact, even the minimal generators of symbolic powers of matroidal ideals are not fully understood. It is widely conjectured that the regularity of symbolic powers coincides with that of ordinary powers, that is, it equals the maximum degree among the minimal generators. Very little progress has been made toward this conjecture.\N\NThe authors show that the conjecture holds for several classes of polymatroidal ideals, including squarefree Veronese ideals, matching-matroidal ideals, and matroidal ideals in at most four variables. They establish an \(x\)-condition on the symbolic Rees algebra analogous to the known \(x\)-conditions for the ordinary Rees algebra. They also provide an example of a matroidal ideal whose symbolic powers are not componentwise linear.