Polar syzygies in characteristic zero: The monomial case (Q952239)

Let \(R=k[x_1,\dots,x_n]\) be a polynomial ring over a field \(k\) of characteristic zero, and let \({\mathbf f}\) be a set of forms of the same degree of \(R\). Central object of the paper is the first syzygy module \(\mathcal{Z}\) of the transposed Jacobian module \(\mathcal {D}(\mathbf{f})\), whose elements are called differential syzygies of \(\mathbf{f}\). The authors consider a distinct submodule \(\mathcal{P}\subset \mathcal{Z}\), whose elements are called polar syzygies; if equality \(\mathcal{P}= \mathcal{Z}\) holds, then \(\mathbf{f}\) is said polarizable. The aim of the paper is to study the polarizability of the module \(\mathcal{Z}\) in the case where \(\mathbf{f}\) consists of monomials of degree \(2\). By associating to \(\mathbf{f}\) a graph \(\mathcal{G}(\mathbf{f})\), the authors translate the problem into a combinatorial one, and are able to describe the generators of both the modules \(\mathcal{Z}\) and \(\mathcal{P}\). As a consequence they give a complete characterization of polarizability in terms of special configurations in the graph \(\mathcal{G}(\mathbf{f})\). In the last part of the paper some other interesting examples and applications of the main result are given. In particular it is proved that if \({\mathbf f}\) is polarizable, then the subalgebra \(k[\mathbf{f}]\subset R\) is normal, and thus Cohen-Macaulay, and that the converse holds provided the graph \(\mathcal{G}(\mathbf{f})\) is free of certain degenerate configurations.