Let $U$ be a unipotent group which is graded in the sense that it has an extension $H$ by the multiplicative group of the complex numbers such that all the weights of the adjoint action on the Lie algebra of $U$ are strictly positive. We study embeddings of $H$ in a general linear group $G$ which possess Grosshans-like properties. More precisely, suppose $H$ acts on a projective variety $X$ and its action extends to an action of $G$ which is linear with respect to an ample line bundle on $X$. Then, provided that we are willing to twist the linearization of the action of $H$ by a suitable (rational) character of $H$, we find that the $H$-invariants form a finitely generated algebra and hence define a projective variety $X/\!/H$; moreover, the natural morphism from the semistable locus in $X$ to $X/\!/H$ is surjective, and semistable points in $X$ are identified in $X/\!/H$ if and only if the closures of their $H$-orbits meet in the semistable locus. A similar result applies when we replace $X$ by its product with the projective line; this gives us a projective completion of a geometric quotient of a $U$-invariant open subset of $X$ by the action of the unipotent group $U$.

In this paper we study the local cohomology modules of Du Bois singularities. Let $(R,\mathfrak{m})$ be a local ring; we prove that if $R_{\text{red}}$ is Du Bois, then $H_{\mathfrak{m}}^{i}(R)\rightarrow H_{\mathfrak{m}}^{i}(R_{\text{red}})$ is surjective for every $i$. We find many applications of this result. For example, we answer a question of Kovács and Schwede [Inversion of adjunction for rational and Du Bois pairs, Algebra Number Theory 10 (2016), 969–1000; MR 3531359] on the Cohen–Macaulay property of Du Bois singularities. We obtain results on the injectivity of $\operatorname{Ext}$ that provide substantial partial answers to questions in Eisenbud et al. [Cohomology on toric varieties and local cohomology with monomial supports, J. Symbolic Comput. 29 (2000), 583–600] in characteristic $0$. These results can also be viewed as generalizations of the Kodaira vanishing theorem for Cohen–Macaulay Du Bois varieties. We prove results on the set-theoretic Cohen–Macaulayness of the defining ideal of Du Bois singularities, which are characteristic-$0$ analogs and generalizations of results of Singh–Walther and answer some of their questions in Singh and Walther [On the arithmetic rank of certain Segre products, in Commutative algebra and algebraic geometry, Contemporary Mathematics, vol. 390 (American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2005), 147–155]. We extend results on the relation between Koszul cohomology and local cohomology for $F$-injective and Du Bois singularities first shown in Hochster and Roberts [The purity of the Frobenius and local cohomology, Adv. Math. 21 (1976), 117–172; MR 0417172 (54 #5230)]. We also prove that singularities of dense $F$-injective type deform.

Conjectures are given for Hilbert series related to polynomial invariants of finite general linear groups: one for invariants mod Frobenius powers of the irrelevant ideal and one for cofixed spaces of polynomials.

In this article the $p$-essential dimension of generic symbols over fields of characteristic $p$ is studied. In particular, the $p$-essential dimension of the length $\ell$ generic $p$-symbol of degree $n+1$ is bounded below by $n+\ell$ when the base field is algebraically closed of characteristic $p$. The proof uses new techniques for working with residues in Milne–Kato $p$-cohomology and builds on work of Babic and Chernousov in the Witt group in characteristic 2. Two corollaries on $p$-symbol algebras (i.e, degree 2 symbols) result from this work. The generic $p$-symbol algebra of length $\ell$ is shown to have $p$-essential dimension equal to $\ell +1$ as a $p$-torsion Brauer class. The second is a lower bound of $\ell +1$ on the $p$-essential dimension of the functor $\operatorname{Alg}_{p^{\ell },p}$. Roughly speaking this says that you will need at least $\ell +1$ independent parameters to be able to specify any given algebra of degree $p^{\ell }$ and exponent $p$ over a field of characteristic $p$ and improves on the previously established lower bound of 3.

We show that any Kawamata log terminal del Pezzo surface over an algebraically closed field of large characteristic is globally $F$-regular or it admits a log resolution which lifts to characteristic zero. As a consequence, we prove the Kawamata–Viehweg vanishing theorem for klt del Pezzo surfaces of large characteristic.

If $(G,V)$ is a polar representation with Cartan subspace $\mathfrak{c}$ and Weyl group $W$, it is shown that there is a natural morphism of Poisson schemes $\mathfrak{c}\oplus \mathfrak{c}^{\ast }/W\rightarrow V\oplus V^{\ast }/\!\!/\!\!/G$. This morphism is conjectured to be an isomorphism of the underlying reduced varieties if$(G,V)$ is visible. The conjecture is proved for visible stable locally free polar representations and some other examples.

Let (A, ${\mathfrak{m}$) be a Cohen–Macaulay local ring of dimension d and let I ⊆ J be two ${\mathfrak{m}$-primary ideals with I a reduction of J. For i = 0,. . .,d, let eiJ(A) (eiI(A)) be the ith Hilbert coefficient of J (I), respectively. We call the number ci(I, J) = eiJ(A) − eiI(A) the ith relative Hilbert coefficient of J with respect to I. If GI(A) is Cohen–Macaulay, then ci(I, J) satisfy various constraints. We also show that vanishing of some ci(I, J) has strong implications on depth GJn(A) for n ≫ 0.

This paper concerns a generalization of the Rees algebra of ideals due to Eisenbud, Huneke and Ulrich that works for any finitely generated module over a noetherian ring. Their definition is in terms of maps to free modules. We give an intrinsic definition using divided powers.

In this paper, we give an explicit realization of the universal SL2-representation rings of free groups by using ‘the ring of component functions’ of SL(2, ℂ)-representations of free groups. We introduce a descending filtration of the ring, and determine the structure of its graded quotients. Then we study the natural action of the automorphism group of a free group on the graded quotients, and introduce a generalized Johnson homomorphism. In the latter part of this paper, we investigate some properties of these homomorphisms from a viewpoint of twisted cohomologies of the automorphism group of a free group.

The $a$-invariant, the $F$-pure threshold, and the diagonal $F$-threshold are three important invariants of a graded $K$-algebra. Hirose, Watanabe, and Yoshida have conjectured relations among these invariants for strongly $F$-regular rings. In this article, we prove that these relations hold only assuming that the algebra is $F$-pure. In addition, we present an interpretation of the $a$-invariant for $F$-pure Gorenstein graded $K$-algebras in terms of regular sequences that preserve $F$-purity. This result is in the spirit of Bertini theorems for projective varieties. Moreover, we show connections with projective dimension, Castelnuovo–Mumford regularity, and Serre’s condition $S_{k}$. We also present analogous results and questions in characteristic zero.

We prove that the generalized Hilbert–Kunz function of a graded module $M$ over a two-dimensional standard graded normal $K$-domain over an algebraically closed field $K$ of prime characteristic $p$ has the form $gHK(M,q)=e_{gHK}(M)q^{2}+\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}(q)$, with rational generalized Hilbert–Kunz multiplicity $e_{gHK}(M)$ and a bounded function $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}(q)$. Moreover, we prove that if $R$ is a $\mathbb{Z}$-algebra, the limit for $p\rightarrow +\infty$ of the generalized Hilbert–Kunz multiplicity $e_{gHK}^{R_{p}}(M_{p})$ over the fibers $R_{p}$ exists, and it is a rational number.

Let $R\subset S$ be an extension of integral domains, with $R^{\ast }$ the integral closure of $R$ in $S$ . We study the set of intermediate rings between $R$ and $S$ . We establish several necessary and sufficient conditions for which every ring contained between $R$ and $S$ compares with $R^{\ast }$ under inclusion. This answers a key question that figured in the work of Gilmer and Heinzer [‘Intersections of quotient rings of an integral domain’, J. Math. Kyoto Univ.7 (1967), 133–150].

We find conditions on the local cohomology modules of multi-Rees algebras of admissible filtrations which enable us to predict joint reduction numbers. As a consequence, we are able to prove a generalization of a result of Reid, Roberts and Vitulli in the setting of analytically unramified local rings for completeness of power products of complete ideals.

Harm Derksen made a conjecture concerning degree bounds for the syzygies of rings of polynomial invariants in the non-modular case [Degree bounds for syzygies of invariants, Adv. Math. 185 (2004), 207–214]. We provide counterexamples to this conjecture, but also prove a slightly weakened version. We also prove some general results that give degree bounds on the homology of complexes and of $\text{Tor}\,$ groups.

Our object of study is a rational map  defined by homogeneous forms $g_{1},\ldots ,g_{n}$ , of the same degree $d$ , in the homogeneous coordinate ring $R=k[x_{1},\ldots ,x_{s}]$ of $\mathbb{P}_{k}^{s-1}$ . Our goal is to relate properties of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ , of the homogeneous coordinate ring $A=k[g_{1},\ldots ,g_{n}]$ of the variety parameterized by $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ , and of the Rees algebra ${\mathcal{R}}(I)$ , the bihomogeneous coordinate ring of the graph of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ . For a regular map $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ , for instance, we prove that ${\mathcal{R}}(I)$ satisfies Serre’s condition $R_{i}$ , for some $i>0$ , if and only if $A$ satisfies $R_{i-1}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ is birational onto its image. Thus, in particular, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F9}$ is birational onto its image if and only if ${\mathcal{R}}(I)$ satisfies $R_{1}$ . Either condition has implications for the shape of the core, namely, $\text{core}(I)$ is the multiplier ideal of $I^{s}$ and $\text{core}(I)=(x_{1},\ldots ,x_{s})^{sd-s+1}.$ Conversely, for $s=2$ , either equality for the core implies birationality. In addition, by means of the generalized rows of the syzygy matrix of $g_{1},\ldots ,g_{n}$ , we give an explicit method to reduce the nonbirational case to the birational one when $s=2$ .

The first example of a torsion-free abelian group $(A,+,0)$ such that the quotient group of $A$ modulo the square subgroup is not a nil-group is indicated (for both associative and general rings). In particular, the answer to the question posed by Stratton and Webb [‘Abelian groups, nil modulo a subgroup, need not have nil quotient group’, Publ. Math. Debrecen27 (1980), 127–130] is given for torsion-free groups. A new method of constructing indecomposable nil-groups of any rank from $2$ to $2^{\aleph _{0}}$ is presented. Ring multiplications on $p$-pure subgroups of the additive group of the ring of $p$-adic integers are investigated using only elementary methods.

In this article, we consider the conjectured relationship between $F$-purity and log canonicity for polynomials over $\mathbb{C}$. In particular, we show that log canonicity corresponds to dense $F$-pure type for all polynomials whose supporting monomials satisfy a certain nondegeneracy condition. We also show that log canonicity corresponds to dense $F$-pure type for very general polynomials over $\mathbb{C}$. Our methods rely on showing that the $F$-pure and log canonical thresholds agree for infinitely many primes, and we accomplish this by comparing these thresholds with the thresholds associated to their monomial term ideals.

In 1981, Thompson proved that, if $n\geqslant 1$ is any integer and $G$ is any finite subgroup of $\text{GL}_{n}(\mathbb{C})$ , then $G$ has a semi-invariant of degree at most $4n^{2}$ . He conjectured that, in fact, there is a universal constant $C$ such that for any $n\in \mathbb{N}$ and any finite subgroup $G<\text{GL}_{n}(\mathbb{C})$ , $G$ has a semi-invariant of degree at most $Cn$ . This conjecture would imply that the ${\it\alpha}$ -invariant ${\it\alpha}_{G}(\mathbb{P}^{n-1})$ , as introduced by Tian in 1987, is at most $C$ . We prove Thompson’s conjecture in this paper.

We investigate symbolic and regular powers of monomial ideals. For a square-free monomial ideal I ⊆ 𝕜[x 0, … , xn ] we show that for all positive integers m, t and r, where e is the big-height of I and . This captures two conjectures (r = 1 and r = e): one of Harbourne and Huneke, and one of Bocci et al. We also introduce the symbolic polyhedron of a monomial ideal and use this to explore symbolic powers of non-square-free monomial ideals.

In analogy with the complex analytic case, Mustaţă constructed (a family of) Bernstein–Sato polynomials for the structure sheaf ${\mathcal{O}}_{X}$ and a hypersurface $(f=0)$ in $X$, where $X$ is a regular variety over an $F$-finite field of positive characteristic (see Mustaţă, Bernstein–Sato polynomials in positive characteristic, J. Algebra 321(1) (2009), 128–151). He shows that the suitably interpreted zeros of his Bernstein–Sato polynomials correspond to the $F$-jumping numbers of the test ideal filtration ${\it\tau}(X,f^{t})$. In the present paper we generalize Mustaţă’s construction replacing ${\mathcal{O}}_{X}$ by an arbitrary $F$-regular Cartier module $M$ on $X$ and show an analogous correspondence of the zeros of our Bernstein–Sato polynomials with the jumping numbers of the associated filtration of test modules ${\it\tau}(M,f^{t})$ provided that $f$ is a nonzero divisor on $M$.