On Cohen-Macaulayness and depth of ideals in invariant rings (Q899575)

Let \(V\) be a finite dimensional representation of a group \(G\) over a field \(K\). The representation is called modular if the characteristic of \(K\) divides the order of \(G\). Otherwise, it is called nonmodular. There is an induced action on the symmetric algebra \(K[V]\) given by \(\sigma(f)=f\circ \sigma^{-1}\) for \(\sigma \in G\) and \(f\in K[V]\). \(K[V]^G = \left\{f\in K[V]| \sigma(f)=f \text{ for all }\sigma \in G\right\}\) denotes the subalgebra of invariant polynomials in \(K[V]\). For any nonmodular representation, \(K[V]^G\) is a Cohen-Macaulay ring as shown in [\textit{M. Hochster} and \textit{J. A. Eagon}, Am. J. Math. 93, 1020--1058 (1971; Zbl 0244.13012)]. In the modular case, on the other hand, \(K[V]^G\) almost always fails to be Cohen-Macaulay, as shown in [\textit{G. Kemper}, J. Algebra 215, No. 1, 330--351 (1999; Zbl 0934.13003)]. The authors in this paper investigate the presence of Cohen-Macaulay ideals in invariant rings and show that an ideal of an invariant ring corresponding to a modular representation of a \(p\)-group is not Cohen-Macaulay unless the invariant ring itself is. As an intermediate result, they obtain that non-Cohen-Macaulay factorial rings cannot contain Cohen-Macaulay ideals. For modular cyclic groups of prime order, they show that the quotient of the invariant ring modulo the transfer ideal is always Cohen-Macaulay, extending a result of \textit{P. Fleischmann} [Prog. Math. 173, 211--233 (1999; Zbl 0947.13005)].