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VARIATION OF HILBERT COEFFICIENTS
LAURA GHEZZI, SHIRO GOTO, JOOYOUN HONG, AND WOLMER V. VASCONCELOS
Abstract. For a Noetherian local ring (R, m), the rst two Hilbert coecients, e0 and e1, of the
I-adic ltration of an m-primary ideal I are known to code for properties of R, of the blowup of
Spec(R) along V (I), and even of their normalizations. We give estimations for these coecients
when I is enlarged (in the case of e1 in the same integral closure class) for general Noetherian local
rings.
1. Introduction
Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension d 1, and let I be an m-primary ideal. We
will consider multiplicative, decreasing ltrations of R ideals,
/ = I
n
[ I
0
= R, I
n+1
= II
n
, n 0,
integral over the I-adic ltration, conveniently coded in the corresponding Rees algebra and its
associated graded ring
!(/) =

n0
I
n
, gr
A
(R) =

n0
I
n
/I
n+1
.
Let ! =

n0
I
n
be the integral closure of the Rees algebra ! = !(I) with I
n
= I
n
for all n 0,
which we assume to be nite over !.
We will consider the Hilbert coecients e
i
(I) associated to m-primary ideals I, for i = 0, 1. These
integers play important roles in the corresponding blowup algebras. Some of these issues have a
long tradition in the context of Cohen-Macaulay local rings, but others are of a recent vintage for
general Noetherian local rings. From the several problem areas, we highlight the following:
(i) The comparison between e
0
and e
1
;
(ii) e
1
and normalization;
(iii) The structure of R associated to the values of e
1
;
(iv) Variation of e
i
, that is how e
i
(I) changes when I is enlarged.
We are concerned here with the last item but give brief comments on the others rst.
AMS 2010 Mathematics Subject Classication. Primary 13A30; Secondary 13B22, 13H10, 13H15.
The rst author is partially supported by a grant from the City University of New York PSC-CUNY Research
Award Program-41. The second author is partially supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientic Researches (C) in Japan
(19540054) and by a grant from MIMS (Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences). The last
author is partially supported by the NSF.
1
2 LAURA GHEZZI, SHIRO GOTO, JOOYOUN HONG, AND WOLMER V. VASCONCELOS
(i) For Cohen-Macaulay rings, an uniform bound for e
1
(I) rst appeared for rings of dimension 1
in the work of D. Kirby ([K]),
e
1
(m)
_
e
0
(m)
2
_
.
Progressively, quadratic bounds of this type were developed for arbitrary m-primary ideals in all
dimensions by several authors. As a basic source, [RV2] has a systematic development of these
formulas along with a comprehensive bibliography. It also treats more general ltrations which
were helpful to us. Among the formulas which more directly inuenced the authors here, we single
out two developed in the work of J. Elias ([E1, E2]) and M. E. Rossi and G. Valla ([RV1, RV2]).
For an d-dimensional Cohen-Macaulay local ring and an m-primary ideal I, the rst bound asserts
that if I is minimally generated by m = (I) elements,
e
1
(I)
_
e
0
(I)
2
_

_
md
2
_
(R/I) + 1.
The other bound uses the m-adic order of I, that if I m
s
and I ,= m
s
, then
e
1
(I)
_
e
0
(I) s
2
_
.
Recently, K. Hanumanthu and C. Huneke ([HH]) brought a new parameter to bear on these formulas
with their proof that
e
1
(I)
_
e
0
(I) k
2
_
,
where k is the maximal length of chains of integrally closed ideals between I and m.
(ii) Since e
1
(I) e
1
(I) := e
1
(!), bounds with a dierent character arise. A baseline is the fact
that when R is analytically unramied, but not necessarilly Cohen-Macaulay, one has e
1
(I) 0
([GHM]). An upper bound for e
1
(I) (see [PUV] for other bounds) is the following. Let (R, m) be
a reduced Cohen-Macaulay local ring of dimension d, essentially of nite type over a perfect eld,
and let I be an m-primary ideal. Let be a regular element of the Jacobian ideal of R. Then
e
1
(I) e
1
(I)
t
t + 1
_
(d 1)e
0
(I) + e
0
((I + R)/R)

,
where t is the Cohen-Macaulay type of R. In particular, if R is a regular local ring
e
1
(I)
(d 1)e
0
(I)
2
.
(iii) When R is not Cohen-Macaulay, the issues become less structured since the values of e
1
(I)
may be negative. In fact, using the values of e
1
(I) for ideals generated by systems of parameters
led to the characterization of several properties (Cohen-Macaulay, Buchsbaum, nite cohomology)
of the ring R itself (see [GhGHOPV], [GhHV], [GO], [MV], [V2]).
(iv) We shall now outline the main results of this note.(We refer to [V1] for basic denitions and
Rees algebras theory.) Sections 2 and 3 are organized around a list of questions about the changes
that e
0
(I) and e
1
(I) undergo when I varies. An important case is
e
0
(J), e
1
(J) e
0
(I), e
1
(I), I = (J, x).
VARIATION OF HILBERT COEFFICIENTS 3
Clearly the optimal baseline is that of an ideal J generated by a system of parameters, but we
will consider very general cases. As will be seen, some relationships involve the multiplicity f
0
(J)
of the special ber. To describe one of these estimates, let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of
dimension d 1, let J be an m-primary ideal and let I = (J, h
1
, . . . , h
m
) be integral over J of
reduction number s = red
J
(I). Then Theorem 2.6 asserts that
e
1
(I) e
1
(J) (R/(J : I))
__
m + s
s
_
1
_
f
0
(J),
where f
0
(J) is the multiplicity of the special ber of !(J) =

n0
J
n
. We add a word of warning
in reading some of the formulas with terms like e
1
(I) e
1
(J). When J is a minimal reduction of
I, e
1
(J) is always non-positive, according to [MSV], and vanishes when R is CohenMacaulay. In
fact, for unmixed local rings the vanishing characterizes Cohen-Macaulayness ([GhGHOPV]).
In Section 3, we address the need to link the value of red
J
(I) to other properties of J. This
is a well-known fact when R is a Cohen-Macaulay ring, but we give a general formulation in
Theorem 3.3: Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension d 1 and innite residue eld.
For an m-primary ideal I and a minimal reduction J of I, there exists a minimal reduction Q of I
such that
red
Q
(I) maxd(R/J) 2d + 1, 0.
2. Upper bounds for the variations of e
0
(I) and e
1
(I)
In our calculations we make repeated use of the following elementary observation.
Lemma 2.1. If (R, m) is a Noetherian local ring and M is an Rmodule of nite length (M),
then
(M N) (M)(N)
for every nitely generated Rmodule N, where (N) denotes the minimal number of generators
for N.
Proof. Induct on n = (M). If n = 1, then M R/m and the assertion is clear. Suppose that
n 2 and choose an Rsubmodule L of M with (L) = 1. By tensoring 0 L M M/L 0
with N, we get the exact sequence
L N M N (M/L) N 0.
Since (M/L) = n 1, the induction hypothesis shows
((M/L) N) (n 1)(N),
so that
(M N) (L N) + ((M/L) N) (1 + (n 1))(N) = (M)(N).

Theorem 2.2. Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension d and let J I = (J, h) be
mprimary ideals of R. Then
e
0
(J) e
0
(I) (R/(J : I))f
0
(J).
4 LAURA GHEZZI, SHIRO GOTO, JOOYOUN HONG, AND WOLMER V. VASCONCELOS
Proof. For n N, consider the following ltration:
J
n
= M
0
M
1
= (M
0
, J
n1
h) M
r1
= (M
r2
, J
nr+1
h
r1
)
M
r
= (M
r1
, J
nr
h
r
)
M
n
= (M
n1
, h
n
) = I
n
.
Then we obtain
(R/J
n
) (R/I
n
) = (I
n
/J
n
) = (M
n
/M
0
) =
n

r=1
(M
r
/M
r1
).
For each r, M
r
/M
r1
is generated by the image of h
r
J
nr
+M
r1
. Consider the natural surjection
: R/(J : h) J
nr
M
r
/M
r1
= (h
r
J
nr
+ M
r1
)/M
r1
.
Using Lemma 2.1, we have
(M
r
/M
r1
) (R/(J : h) J
nr
) (R/(J : h))(J
nr
).
It follows that
(R/J
n
) (R/I
n
) (R/(J : I))
n1

r=0
(J
r
).
The iterated Hilbert function
n1

r=0
(J
r
) is of polynomial type of degree d with leading (binomial)
coecient f
0
(J). Also, for n 0, (R/J
n
) (R/I
n
) is the dierence of two polynomials of
degree d and leading (binomial) coecients e
0
(J) and e
0
(I). Hence
e
0
(J) e
0
(I) (R/(J : I))f
0
(J).

Theorem 2.3. Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension d 1 and let J I = (J, h) be
mprimary ideals. If h is integral over J, then
e
1
(I) e
1
(J) red
J
(I)(R/(J : I))f
0
(J),
where red
J
(I) is the reduction number of I with respect to J.
Proof. Let s = red
J
(I). Then h
s+1
JI
s
. For n s, we obtain the following ltration:
J
n
= M
0
M
1
= (M
0
, J
n1
h) M
r
= (M
r1
, J
nr
h
r
)
M
s
= (M
s1
, J
ns
h
s
) = I
n
.
Therefore
(R/J
n
) (R/I
n
) = (I
n
/J
n
) =
s

r=1
(M
r
/M
r1
) (R/(J : I))
s

r=1
(J
nr
).
VARIATION OF HILBERT COEFFICIENTS 5
Now for n 0, (R/J
n
) (R/I
n
) is the dierence of two polynomials of degree d and with
same leading (binomial) coecients e
0
(J) and e
0
(I), therefore it is at most a polynomial of degree
d 1 and leading coecient e
1
(I) e
1
(J). On the other hand, for n 0, we have
(R/(J : h))
s

r=1
(J
nr
) (R/(J : h))s
d1

i=0
(1)
i
f
i
(J)
_
n + d i 2
d i 1
_
,
which proves that
e
1
(I) e
1
(J) red
J
(I)(R/(J : I))f
0
(J).

Corollary 2.4. Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension d 1 and innite residue eld.
Let Q I = (Q, h) be mprimary ideals such that Q is a minimal reduction of I. Then
e
1
(I) red
Q
(I)(R/(Q : I)).
Moreover, if R is Gorenstein, then
e
1
(I) red
Q
(I)(e
0
(I) (R/I)).
Proof. The rst assertion follows from e
1
(Q) 0 [MSV] and f
0
(Q) = 1 for every parameter ideal
Q. Suppose that R is Gorenstein. Then it is enough to show that
(R/(Q : I)) = e
0
(I) (R/I).
This follows from
(R/(Q : I)) = (R/Q) ((Q : I)/Q) = e
0
(Q) ((Q : I)/Q) = e
0
(Q) (R/I)
because (Q : I)/Q is the canonical module of R/I.
Example 2.5. ([V1, Example 7.36]) Let k[x, y, z] be the polynomial ring over an innite eld k.
Let R = k[x, y, z]
(x,y,z)
and let J and I be Rideals such that
J = (x
a
, y
b
, z
c
) (J, x

) = I,
where

a
+

b
+

c
< 1. This inequality ensures that h = x

/ J. Then we have
e
0
(J) e
0
(I) = abc (ab + bc + ac) = abc
_
1

a


b


c
_
.
Since (J : I) = (J : x

) = (x
a
, y
b
, z
c
), we obtain
(R/(J : I))f
0
(J) = (a )(b )(c )
= abc bc ac ab + a + b + c
= e
0
(J) e
0
(I) +
_
a

+
b

+
c

1
_
> e
0
(J) e
0
(I).
6 LAURA GHEZZI, SHIRO GOTO, JOOYOUN HONG, AND WOLMER V. VASCONCELOS
Let Q = (x
a
z
c
, y
b
z
c
, x

) and suppose that a > 3, b > 3, c > 3. Note that I =

(Q, z
c
). Then Q is a minimal reduction of I and the reduction number red
Q
(I) 2. We can
estimate e
1
(I):
e
1
(I) = e
1
(I) e
1
(Q) 2(R/(Q : I)).

Now we treat a general case of Theorem 2.3. Let J be an mprimary ideal and H = (h
1
, . . . , h
m
)
a set of elements integral over J. Write I = (J, H), where (H) = (I/J), and consider the
dierence of Hilbert functions
(R/J
n
) (R/I
n
) = ((J, H)
n
/J
n
) = ((J
n
, HJ
n1
, . . . , H
n1
J, H
n
)/J
n
)
=
n

r=1
(M
r
/M
r1
),
where M
r
= (J
n
, HJ
n1
, . . . , H
r1
J
nr+1
, H
r
J
nr
). Note that M
r
/M
r1
is generated by the
image of H
r
J
nr
. More precisely, if I = (J, h
1
, . . . , h
m
), then M
r
/M
r1
is generated by batches of
elements, dicult to control. This ltration has been used by several authors when J is generated
by a system of parameters. As (I
n
/J
n
) is increasing, the method of iterating the assertion in
Theorem 2.3 tends to induce a bigger upper bound for e
1
(I) e
1
(J) than necessary. Instead, our
formulation using the ltration above wraps it dierently to accommodate our data.
Theorem 2.6. Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension d 1, let J be an m-primary
ideal and let I = (J, h
1
, . . . , h
m
) be integral over J of reduction number s = red
J
I. Then
e
1
(I) e
1
(J) (R/(J : I))
__
m + s
s
_
1
_
f
0
(J).
Proof. We have already given parts of the proof. The remaining part is to estimate the growth
of the length of M
r
/M
r1
= [(h
1
, . . . , h
m
)
r
J
nr
+ M
r1
] /M
r1
. We note that this module is
annihilated by J : I and is generated by the monomials in the h
i
of degree r, with coecients in
J
nr
. There is a natural surjection
: R/(J : I) R
br
J
nr
M
r
/M
r1
,
where b
r
=
_
m + r 1
r
_
. Therefore for n 0,
(R/J
n
) (R/I
n
) =
s

r=1
(M
r
/M
r1
)

r=1
(R/(J : I))(J
n
)
_
m + r 1
r
_
= (R/(J : I))(J
n
)
__
m + s
s
_
1
_
,
which completes the proof.
VARIATION OF HILBERT COEFFICIENTS 7
In Theorem 2.6, if J is a minimal reduction of I, then it is wellknown that m = (I) (J)
does not depend on J because mI J = mJ. Moreover, if R is CohenMacaulay, then (R/(J : I))
does not depend on J either, because (R/(J : I)) = e
0
(I) (H
m
(I)), where H
m
(I) is the mth
Koszul homology of I.
Proposition 2.7. Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension d 1, let J be an m-primary
ideal and let I = (J, h
1
, . . . , h
m
) be integral over J of reduction number s = red
J
I. Then
f
0
(I)
_
1 + (R/(J : I))
__
m + s
s
_
1
__
f
0
(J).
Proof. By tensoring the following exact sequence with R/m
0 J
n
I
n
I
n
/J
n
0,
we obtain
J
n
/mJ
n
I
n
/mI
n
(I
n
/J
n
) R/m 0.
Therefore, using Lemma 2.1, we get
(I
n
/mI
n
) (J
n
/mJ
n
) ((I
n
/J
n
) R/m)
(I
n
/J
n
) = (R/J
n
) (R/I
n
).
This induces the inequalities of the leading coecients (in degree d 1)
f
0
(I) f
0
(J) e
1
(I) e
1
(J).
Using Theorem 2.6, we obtain
f
0
(I) f
0
(J) e
1
(I) e
1
(J) (R/(J : I))
__
m + s
s
_
1
_
f
0
(J),
which completes the proof.
Remark 2.8. Note that the formulas for the variations of e
1
(I) and f
0
(I) require that the ideal I
has the same integral closure as J.
The values of the rst Hilbert coecients are also related to the multiplicity of certain Sally
modules, according to [C, Proposition 2.8]. Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension
d 1 with innite residue eld. Let I be an mprimary ideal and Q a minimal reduction of I. If
dim(S
Q
(I)) = d and H
0
m
(R) I, then the multiplicity s
0
(Q, I) of the Sally module S
Q
(I) is
s
0
(Q, I) = e
1
(I) e
1
(Q) e
0
(I) + (R/I).
Corollary 2.9. Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension d 1 with innite residue eld.
Let I be an mprimary ideal and Q a minimal reduction of I. Suppose that dim(S
Q
(I)) = d and
that H
0
m
(R) I. Then the multiplicity s
0
(Q, I) of the Sally module S
Q
(I) satises
s
0
(Q, I) e
0
(I) + (R/I) + (R/(Q : I))
__
(I) d + s
s
_
1
_
,
where s = red
Q
(I) is the reduction number.
8 LAURA GHEZZI, SHIRO GOTO, JOOYOUN HONG, AND WOLMER V. VASCONCELOS
Example 2.10. Let R = k[x, y]
(x,y)
where k[x, y] denotes the polynomial ring over an innite eld
k. Let m = (x, y) and I = m
n
= (a
1
, . . . , a
n
, a
n+1
) for some n 2. We assume that Q = (a
1
, a
2
)
is a minimal reduction of I. Let J = (a
1
, a
2
, . . . , a
n
). Then since Q J, I is integral over J with
red
J
(I) = 1, because I ,= J and red
Q
(I) = 1. Using e
1
(I) = e
1
(m
n
) =
1
2
n(n 1) and
e
1
(I) e
1
(J) (R/(J : a
n+1
))f
0
(J),
we obtain
e
1
(J)
1
2
n(n 1) (R/(J : a
n+1
))f
0
(J).
One situation that may be amenable to further analysis is when I = J : m, or more generally
I = J : m
s
for some values of s. We refer to I as a socle extension of J.
Remark 2.11. (Reduction number one) Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension
d 1 with innite residue eld. Let I be an mprimary ideal and Q a minimal reduction of I.
Suppose that I
2
= QI. Then by Theorem 2.6 we get
e
1
(I) e
1
(Q) (R/(Q : I))((I) d) (R/(Q : I))(I/Q).
Suppose that R is CohenMacaulay. Then since e
1
(I) = e
0
(I) (R/I) = (I/Q) ([Hu, 2.1]), it
follows that
e
1
(I) = e
1
(I) e
1
(Q) (R/(Q : I))(I/Q) = (R/(Q : I))e
1
(I).
For example, if R is a CohenMacaulay local ring that is not regular and I = Q : m, then
e
1
(I) = e
1
(I) e
1
(Q) (R/(Q : I))((I) d) (I/Q) = e
1
(I),
which is a case when the equality in Theorem 2.6 holds true.
Example 2.12. Let R be a CohenMacaulay local ring of dimension 1 with e
0
(R) = 2. For every
mprimary ideal I, there exists a I such that I
2
= aI ([SV, Theorem 2.5]). Hence
e
1
(I) = (R/(aR : I)) [(I) 1] .
Example 2.13. Let a and be integers such that a 4 and 2. Let H be the numerical
semigroup generated by a, a 1, a + i
1ia3
, and put R = k[[t
a
, t
a1
, t
a+i

1ia3
]] in
the formal power series ring k[[t]] over a eld k. Let I = (t
2aa1
, t
3a2a1i

1ia3
) R and
Q = (t
2aa1
) I. Then I =
R
is a canonical ideal of R and Q is a reduction of I. We have
mI Q and e
1
(I) = (R[t
aai
[ 1 i a 3]/R) = a 2 = r(R)
([GMP, Lemma 2.1]), where r(R) is the CohenMacaulay type. Hence
a 3 = r(R) 1 = (I/Q) = (I/Q) < e
1
(I) = a 2.
Since r(R) 2, the ring R is not Gorenstein. We have e
1
(I) = (I/Q) + 1, so that
e
1
(I) = e
0
(I) (R/I) + 1.
Therefore, thanks to [S2], we get I
3
= QI
2
(hence red
Q
(I) = 2) and
VARIATION OF HILBERT COEFFICIENTS 9
S
Q
(I) B(1)
as graded !(Q)modules, where !(Q) denotes the Rees algebra of Q, S
Q
(I) the Sally module of I
with respect to Q, and B = !(Q)/m!(Q). We have
a 2 = e
1
(I) (R/(Q : I))
__
m + s
s
_
1
_
=
_
a 1
2
_
1,
since s = 2 and m = a 3. The equality e
1
(I) = (R/(Q : I))
__
m+s
s
_
1

holds if and only if

a = 4. When this is the case, we have H = 4, 4 1, 4 + 1.
3. The reduction number formula
In order to make use of Theorem 2.6, we need information about the reduction number of I in
terms related to multiplicity. Let us recall [V1, Theorem 2.45]:
Theorem 3.1. Let (R, m) be a Cohen-Macaulay local ring of dimension d 1 and innite residue
eld. For an m-primary ideal I,
red(I) max
_
de
0
(I)
o(I)
2d + 1 , 0
_
where o(I) is the m-adic order of I.
To establish such a result for arbitrary Noetherian local rings, we proceed dierently. The version
of the following lemma for Cohen-Macaulay rings can be found in [S1, Chapter 3, Theorem 1.1].
Lemma 3.2. Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension 1. Let x be a parameter of R.
Let E be a nitely generated Rmodule and U an Rsubmodule of E. Then we have the following.
(a) (U) (R/(x))(E). Hence (I) (R/(x)) for every ideal I of R.
(b) If R is CohenMacaulay and x belongs to m
s
, then (U)
(R/(x))
s
(E).
Proof. (a) Let W = H
0
m
(E), E

= E/W, and U

= (U + W)/W. Then E

is a Cohen-Macaulay
Rmodule of dimension 1 and x is E

regular. Moreover,
(U

/xU

) = e
0
((x), U

) e
0
((x), E

) = (E

/xE

).
Consider the following two short exact sequences:
0 W E E

0
0 U W U U

0
10 LAURA GHEZZI, SHIRO GOTO, JOOYOUN HONG, AND WOLMER V. VASCONCELOS
Then we obtain
(U) (U/xU) = (U

/xU

) + ((U W)/x(U W))

= (U

/xU

) + ((0 :
UW
x))
(U

/xU

) + ((0 :
W
x))
= (U

/xU

) + (W/xW)
(E

/xE

) + (W/xW)
= (E/xE)
(R/(x))(E).
(b) We may assume that the eld R/m is innite. Let yR be a minimal reduction of m. Then since
x m
s
y
s
R, we get
(R/(x)) = e
0
(xR) e
0
(y
s
R) = e
0
(y
s
R) = se
0
(yR) = s(R/(y)).
Hence (R/(y))
(R/(x))
s
, so that
(U) (R/(y))(E)
(R/(x))
s
(E).

Theorem 3.3. Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension d 1 with innite residue eld.
For an m-primary ideal I and a minimal reduction J of I, there exists a minimal reduction Q of I
such that
red
Q
(I) maxd(R/J) 2d + 1, 0.
Proof. Let us start with a minimal reduction J = (x
1
, . . . , x
d
) of I. Let L = (x
1
, . . . , x
d1
). Then
(I
n
) (L
n
) + (I
n
/L
n
).
We need to estimate (I
n
/L
n
). Set
M
i
=
(I
n
+ L
ni+1
) L
ni
L
ni+1
and N
i
=
I
n
+ L
ni+1
L
ni+1
.
Then we obtain the following series of exact sequences :
0 M
i
N
i
N
i+1
0,
where i = 1, . . . , n1. Note that for each i, M
i
is a submodule of L
ni
/L
ni+1
as an R/Lmodule.
Hence by Lemma 3.2, for each i = 1, . . . , n 1,
(M
i
) (R/J)(L
ni
/L
ni+1
) = (R/J)
_
d + n 2 i
d 2
_
.
VARIATION OF HILBERT COEFFICIENTS 11
Since N
n
=
I
n
+ L
L
is a submodule of R/L, by Lemma 3.2, we get
(N
n
) (R/J).
Therefore we obtain
(I
n
) (L
n
) + (I
n
/L
n
)
(L
n
) + (M
1
) + (M
2
) + + (M
n1
) + (N
n
)

_
d + n 2
d 2
_
+ (R/J)
n

i=1
_
d + n 2 i
d 2
_
=
_
d + n 2
d 2
_
+ (R/J)
_
d + n 2
d 1
_
.
Recall that if
(I
n
) <
_
n + d
d
_
,
then there is a minimal reduction Q of I such that red
Q
(I) n 1 ([ES], [V1, Theorem 2.36]).
Hence by solving the inequality
_
d + n 2
d 2
_
+ (R/J)
_
d + n 2
d 1
_
<
_
n + d
d
_
,
we obtain the desired relation.
Corollary 3.4. Let (R, m) be a Noetherian local ring of dimension d 1 and innite residue eld.
Let Q be a minimal reduction of m such that red
Q
(m) = red(m). Then
e
1
(m) e
1
(m) e
1
(Q) (R/(Q : m))
__
(m) + (R/Q)d 3d + 1
(m) d
_
1
_
.
Remark 3.5. It is worthwhile to point out that there are other known bounds for the reduction
number of an ideal in terms of some of its Hilbert coecients. One of these is a bound proved by
M. E. Rossi ([R, Corollary 1.5]): If (R, m) is a Cohen-Macaulay local ring of dimension at most 2
then for any mprimary ideal I with a minimal reduction Q
red
Q
(I) e
1
(I) e
0
(I) + (R/I) + 1.
Several open questions arise. Foremost whether it extends to higher dimensional Cohen-Macaulay
rings (with a correction term depending on the dimension). Another question is which osetting
terms should be added in the non Cohen-Macaulay case. For instance, in dimension 2 whether the
addition of e
1
(Q), a term that can be considered a non CohenMacaulayness penalty, would give
a valid bound.
12 LAURA GHEZZI, SHIRO GOTO, JOOYOUN HONG, AND WOLMER V. VASCONCELOS
4. Normalization
The following observation shows how the special ber of the normalization impacts e
0
(I). Of
course, more interesting issue would be to obtain relationships going the other way.
Proposition 4.1. Let (R, m) be a normal local domain and let I be an m-primary ideal. Suppose
that ! =

n=0
C
n
is nite over ! = !(I). We denote by f
0
(I) the multiplicity of !/m!. Then
e
0
(I) minf
0
(I)(R/I), f
0
(I)(R/I).
Proof. We rst observe that C
n+1
= IC
n
= IC
n
, for n 0. In particular, in that range,
C
n+1
mC
n
. Consider now the corresponding exact sequence
0 mC
n
/C
n+1
C
n
/C
n+1
C
n
/mC
n
0.
Counting multiplicities, we have
e
0
(I) deg(m!/I !) + deg(!/m!) f
0
(I)((m/I) + 1) = f
0
(I)(R/I)
as desired. The other inequality, e
0
(I) f
0
(I)(R/I), has a similar proof.
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VARIATION OF HILBERT COEFFICIENTS 13
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Department of Mathematics, New York City College of Technology-Cuny, 300 Jay Street, Brook-
lyn, NY 11201, U.S.A.
E-mail address: lghezzi@citytech.cuny.edu
Department of Mathematics, School of Science and Technology, Meiji University, 1-1-1 Higashi-
mita, Tama-ku, Kawasaki 214-8571, Japan
E-mail address: goto@math.meiji.ac.jp
Department of Mathematics, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent Street, New
Haven, CT 06515-1533, U.S.A.
E-mail address: hongj2@southernct.edu
Department of Mathematics, Rutgers University, 110 Frelinghuysen Rd, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8019,
U.S.A.
E-mail address: vasconce@math.rutgers.edu