Cancellation of projective modules over polynomial extensions over a two-dimensional ring

Let R be a commutative Noetherian ring of dimension two with $1/2\in R$ and let $A=R[X_1,?,X_n]$. Let P be a projective A-module of rank 2. In this article, we prove that P is cancellative if ${\wedge }^2(P)\oplus A$ is cancellative.     

The symbolic defect of an ideal

Let I be a homogeneous ideal of $\mathbb{k}[x_0,\dots ,x_n]$. To compare $I^{(m)}$, the m-th symbolic power of I, with $I^m$, the regular m-th power, we introduce the m-th symbolic defect of I, denoted $\mathrm{sdefect}(I,m)$. Precisely, $\mathrm{sdefect}(I,m)$ is the minimal number of generators of the R-module $I^{(m)}/I^m$, or equivalently, the minimal number of generators one must add to $I^m$ to make $I^{(m)}$. In this paper, we take the first step towards understanding the symbolic defect by considering the case that I is either the defining ideal of a star configuration or the ideal associated to a finite set of points in ${\mathbb{P}}^2$. We are specifically interested in identifying ideals I with $\mathrm{sdefect}(I,2)=1$.     

Noetherian-like properties in polynomial and power series rings

There are many Noetherian-like rings. Among them, we are interested in SFT-rings, piecewise Noetherian rings, and rings with Noetherian prime spectrum. Some of them are stable under polynomial extensions but none of them are stable under power series extensions. We give partial answers to some open questions related with stabilities of such rings. In particular, we show that any mixed extensions $R[X_1??[X_n?$ over a zero-dimensional SFT ring R are also SFT-rings, and that if R is an SFT-domain such that $R/P$ is integrally closed for each prime ideal P of R, then $R[X]$ is an SFT-ring. We also give a direct proof that if R is an SFT Prüfer domain, then $R[X_1,?,X_n]$ is an SFT-ring. Finally, we show that the power series extension $R?X?$ over a Prüfer domain R is piecewise Noetherian if and only if R is Noetherian.     

The projective dimension of three cubics is at most 5

Let R be a polynomial ring over a field and I an ideal generated by three forms of degree three. Motivated by Stillman's question, Engheta proved that the projective dimension $\mathrm{pd}(R/I)$ of $R/I$ is at most 36, although the example with largest projective dimension he constructed has $\mathrm{pd}(R/I)=5$. Based on computational evidence, it had been conjectured that $\mathrm{pd}(R/I)\le 5$. In the present paper we prove this conjectured sharp bound.     

The space of lines in cyclic covers of projective space

Take positive integers m, n and d. Let Y be an m-fold cyclic cover of ${\mathbb{P}}^n$ ramified over a general hypersurface $X\subset P^n$ of degree md. In this paper we study the space $F(Y)$ of lines in Y and show that it is smooth of dimension $2(n-1)-d(m-1)$ if $md>2n-3$ and $2(n-1)-d(m-1)\ge 0$. When $2(n-1)=d(m-1)$, our result gives a formula on the number of m-contact order lines of X (see Definition 1.2).     

A note on Hamilton sequences of extremal Beltrami differentials

Let X be a hyperbolic Riemann surface and let μ be an extremal Beltrami differential on X with ${6\mu 6}_{\infty }\in (0,1)$. It is proved that, if $\{{?}_n\}$ is a Hamilton sequence of μ, then $\{{?}_n\}$ must be a Hamilton sequence of any extremal Beltrami differential ν contained in $[\mu ]$. This result proved a conjecture of the first author of this paper in 1996. This result is also a generalization of two known results.     

Gaps in the number of generators of monomial Togliatti systems

Let $I_{d,n}?k[x_0,?,x_n]$ be a minimal monomial Togliatti system of forms of degree d. In [4], Mezzetti and Miró-Roig proved that the minimal number of generators $\mu (I_{d,n})$ of $I_{d,n}$ lies in the interval $[2n+1,\left(\begin{array}{c}n+d?1\\ n?1\end{array}\right)]$. In this paper, we prove that for $n\ge 4$ and $d\ge 3$, the integer values in $[2n+3,3n?1]$ cannot be realized as the number of minimal generators of a minimal monomial Togliatti system. We classify minimal monomial Togliatti systems $I_{d,n}?k[x_0,?,x_n]$ of forms of degree d with $\mu (I_{d,n})=2n+2$ or 3n (i.e. with the minimal number of generators reaching the border of the non-existence interval). Finally, we prove that for $n=4$, $d\ge 3$ and $\mu \in [9,\left(\begin{array}{c}d+3\\ 3\end{array}\right)]?\{11\}$ there exists a minimal monomial Togliatti system $I_{d,n}?k[x_0,?,x_n]$ of forms of degree d with $\mu (I_{n,d})=\mu$.     

On invariant fields of vectors and covectors

Let ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ be the finite field of order q. Let G be one of the three groups $\mathrm{GL}(n,{\mathbb{F}}_q)$, $\mathrm{SL}(n,{\mathbb{F}}_q)$ or $\mathrm{U}(n,{\mathbb{F}}_q)$ and let W be the standard n-dimensional representation of G. For non-negative integers m and d we let $mW\oplus d{W}^{?}$ denote the representation of G given by the direct sum of m vectors and d covectors. We exhibit a minimal set of homogeneous invariant polynomials $\{{?}_1,{?}_2,\dots ,{?}_{(m+d)n}\}?{\mathbb{F}}_q{[mW\oplus d{W}^{?}]}^G$ such that ${\mathbb{F}}_q{(mW\oplus d{W}^{?})}^G={\mathbb{F}}_q({?}_1,{?}_2,\dots ,{?}_{(m+d)n})$ for all cases except when $md=0$ and $G=\mathrm{GL}(n,{\mathbb{F}}_q)$ or $\mathrm{SL}(n,{\mathbb{F}}_q)$.     

Powers of ideals associated to (C4,2K2)-free graphs

Let G be a $(C_4,2K_2)$-free graph with edge ideal $I(G)?\mathbb{k}[x_1,\dots ,x_n]$. We show that $I{(G)}^s$ has linear resolution for every $s\ge 2$. Also, we show that every power of the vertex cover ideal of G has linear quotients. As a result, we describe the Castelnuovo–Mumford regularity of powers of $I{(G)}^{\vee }$ in terms of the maximum degree of G.     

A uniform bound of reducibility index of good parameter ideals for certain class of modules

Let $(R,\mathfrak{m})$ be a Noetherian local ring and M a finitely generated R-module. The invariants $\mathrm{p}(M)$ and $\mathrm{sp}(M)$ of M were introduced in [3] and [17] in order to measure the non-Cohen–Macaulayness and the non-sequential-Cohen–Macaulayness of M, respectively. Let $M=D_0?D_1?\dots ?D_k$ be the filtration of M such that $D_i$ is the largest submodule of M of dimension less than $\dim ?D_{i?1}$ for all $i\le k$ and $\mathrm{p}(D_k)\le 1$. In this paper we prove that if $\mathrm{sp}(M)\le 1$, then there exists a constant c such that ${\mathrm{ir}}_M(\mathfrak{q}M)\le c$ for all good parameter ideals $\mathfrak{q}$ of M with respect to this filtration. Here ${\mathrm{ir}}_M(\mathfrak{q}M)$ is the reducibility index of $\mathfrak{q}$ on M. This is an extension of the main results of [19], [20], [24].     

Path decompositions of triangle-free graphs

Let G be a graph with n vertices. A path decomposition of G is a set of edge-disjoint paths containing all the edges of G. Let $p(G)$ denote the minimum number of paths needed in a path decomposition of G. Gallai Conjecture asserts that if G is connected, then $p(G)\le ?n/2?$. If G is allowed to be disconnected, then the upper bound $?\frac{3}{4}n?$ for $p(G)$ was obtained by Donald [7], which was improved to $?\frac{2}{3}n?$ independently by Dean and Kouider [6] and Yan [14]. For graphs consisting of vertex-disjoint triangles, $?\frac{2}{3}n?$ is reached and so this bound is tight. If triangles are forbidden in G, then $p(G)\le ?\frac{g+1}{2g}n?$ can be derived from the result of Harding and McGuinness [11], where g denotes the girth of G. In this paper, we also focus on triangle-free graphs and prove that $p(G)\le ?3n/5?$, which improves the above result with $g=4$.     

On the equational graphs over finite fields

In this paper, we generalize the notion of functional graph. Specifically, given an equation $E(X,Y)=0$ with variables X and Y over a finite field ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ of odd characteristic, we define a digraph by choosing the elements in ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ as vertices and drawing an edge from x to y if and only if $E(x,y)=0$. We call this graph as equational graph. In this paper, we study the equational graph when choosing $E(X,Y)=(Y^2-f(X))(\lambda Y^2-f(X))$ with $f(X)$ a polynomial over ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ and λ a non-square element in ${\mathbb{F}}_q$. We show that if f is a permutation polynomial over ${\mathbb{F}}_q$, then every connected component of the graph has a Hamiltonian cycle. Moreover, these Hamiltonian cycles can be used to construct balancing binary sequences. By making computations for permutation polynomials f of low degree, it appears that almost all these graphs are strongly connected, and there are many Hamiltonian cycles in such a graph if it is connected.     

L-orthogonality in Daugavet centers and narrow operators

We study the presence of L-orthogonal elements in connection with Daugavet centers and narrow operators. We prove that if $\mathrm{dens}(Y)?{\omega }_1$ and $G:X?Y$ is a Daugavet center with separable range then, for every non-empty $w^{?}$-open subset W of $B_{X^{??}}$, it follows that $G^{??}(W)$ contains some L-orthogonal to Y. In the context of narrow operators, we show that if X is separable and $T:X?Y$ is a narrow operator, then given $y\in B_X$ and any non-empty $w^{?}$-open subset W of $B_{X^{??}}$ then W contains some L-orthogonal u so that $T^{??}(u)=T(y)$. In the particular case that $T^{?}(Y^{?})$ is separable, we extend the previous result to $\mathrm{dens}(X)={\omega }_1$. Finally, we prove that none of the previous results holds in larger density characters (in particular, a counterexample is shown for ${\omega }_2$ under the assumption $2^c={\omega }_2$).     

Irredundance trees of diameter 3

A set D of vertices of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is irredundant if each non-isolated vertex of $G[D]$ has a neighbour in $V?D$ that is not adjacent to any other vertex in D. The upper irredundance number $\mathrm{IR}(G)$ is the largest cardinality of an irredundant set of G; an $\mathrm{IR}(G)$-set is an irredundant set of cardinality $\mathrm{IR}(G)$.The IR-graph of G has the $\mathrm{IR}(G)$-sets as vertex set, and sets D and $D^{\prime }$ are adjacent if and only if $D^{\prime }$ can be obtained from D by exchanging a single vertex of D for an adjacent vertex in $D^{\prime }$. An IR-tree is an IR-graph that is a tree. We characterize IR-trees of diameter 3 by showing that these graphs are precisely the double stars $S(2n,2n)$, i.e., trees obtained by joining the central vertices of two disjoint stars $K_{1,2n}$.     

Hamiltonian and long paths in bipartite graphs with connectivity

Let G be a graph, $\nu (G)$ the order of G, $\kappa (G)$ the connectivity of G and k a positive integer such that $k\le (\nu (G)?2)/2$. Then G is said to be k-extendable if it has a matching of size k and every matching of size k extends to a perfect matching of G. A Hamiltonian path of a graph G is a spanning path of G. A bipartite graph G with vertex sets $V_1$ and $V_2$ is defined to be Hamiltonian-laceable if such that $|V_1|=|V_2|$ and for every pair of vertices $p\in V_1$ and $q\in V_2$, there exists a Hamiltonian path in G with endpoints p and q, or $|V_1|=|V_2|+1$ and for every pair of vertices $p,q\in V_1,p\ne q$, there exists a Hamiltonian path in G with endpoints p and q. Let G be a bipartite graph with bipartition $(X,Y)$. Define $bn(G)$ to be a maximum integer such that $0\le bn(G)<min\{|X|,|Y|\}$ and (1) for each non-empty subset S of X, if $|S|\le |X|?bn(G)$, then $|N(S)|\ge |S|+bn(G)$, and if $|X|?bn(G)<|S|\le |X|$, then $N(S)=Y$; and (2) for each non-empty subset S of Y, if $|S|\le |Y|?bn(G)$, then $|N(S)|\ge |S|+bn(G)$, and if $|Y|?bn(G)<|S|\le |Y|$, then $N(S)=X$; and (3) $bn(G)=0$ if there is no non-negative integer satisfying (1) and (2).Let G be a bipartite graph with bipartition $(X,Y)$ such that $|X|=|Y|$ and $bn(G)>0$. In this paper, we show that if $\nu (G)\le 2\kappa (G)+4bn(G)?4$, then G is Hamiltonian-laceable; or if $\nu (G)>6bn(G)?2$, then for every pair of vertices $x\in X$ and $y\in Y$, there is an $(x,y)$-path P in G with $|V(P)|\ge 6bn(G)?2$. We show some of its corollaries in k-extendable, bipartite graphs and a conjecture in k-extendable graphs.