Hilbert Functions of General Hypersurface Restrictions and Local Cohomology for Modules

In this thesis, we study invariants of graded modules over polynomial rings. In particular, we find bounds on the Hilbert functions and graded Betti numbers of certain modules. This area of research has been widely studied, and we discuss several well-known theorems and conjectures related to these problems. Our main results extend some known theorems from the case of homogeneous ideals of polynomial rings R to that of graded R-modules. In Chapters 2 & 3, we discuss preliminary material needed for the following chapters. This includes monomial orders for modules, Hilbert functions, graded Betti numbers, and generic initial modules.

In Chapter 4, we discuss x_n-stability of submodules M of free R-modules F, and use this stability to examine properties of lexsegment modules. Using these tools, we prove our first main result: a general hypersurface restriction theorem for modules. This theorem states that, when restricting to a general hypersurface of degree j, the Hilbert series of M is bounded above by that of M^{lex}+x_n^jF. In Chapter 5, we discuss Hilbert series of local cohomology modules. As a consequence of our general hypersurface restriction theorem, we give a bound on the Hilbert series of H^i_m(F/M). In particular, we show that the Hilbert series of local cohomology modules of a quotient of a free module does not decrease when the module is replaced by a quotient by the lexicographic module M^{lex}.

The content of Chapter 6 is based on joint work with Gabriel Sosa. The main theorem is an extension of a result of Caviglia and Sbarra to polynomial rings with base field of any characteristic. Given a homogeneous ideal containing both a piecewise lex ideal and an ideal generated by powers of the variables, we find a lex ideal with the following property: the ideal in the polynomial ring generated by the piecewise lex ideal, the ideal of powers, and the lex ideal has the same Hilbert function and Betti numbers at least as large as those of the original ideal. This bound on the Betti numbers is sharp, and is a closer bound than what was previously known in this setting.