On the arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay property for sets of points in multiprojective spaces

Abstract

We study the arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay (ACM) property for finite sets of points in multiprojective spaces, especially ( P 1 ) n (\mathbb P^1)^n . A combinatorial characterization, the ( ⋆ ) (\star ) -property, is known in P 1 × P 1 \mathbb P^1 \times \mathbb P^1 . We propose a combinatorial property, ( ⋆ s ) (\star _s) with 2 ≤ s ≤ n 2\leq s\leq n , that directly generalizes the ( ⋆ ) (\star ) -property to ( P 1 ) n (\mathbb P^1)^n for larger n n . We show that X X is ACM if and only if it satisfies the ( ⋆ n ) (\star _n) -property. The main tool for several of our results is an extension to the multiprojective setting of certain liaison methods in projective space.