Iterated socles and integral dependence in regular rings

Abstract: Let $R$ be a formal power series ring over a field, with maximal ideal $\mathfrak m$, and let $I$ be an ideal of $R$ such that $R/I$ is Artinian. We study the iterated socles of $I$, that is the ideals which are defined as the largest ideal $J$ with $J\mathfrak m^s\subset I$ for a fixed positive integer $s$. We are interested in these ideals in connection with the notion of integral dependence of ideals. In this article we show that the iterated socles are integral over $I$, with reduction number one, provided $s \leq \text{o}(I_1(\varphi_d))-1$, where $\text{o}(I_1(\varphi_d))$ is the order of the ideal of entries of the last map in a minimal free $R$-resolution of $R/I$. In characteristic zero, we also provide formulas for the generators of iterated socles whenever $s\leq \text{o}(I_1(\varphi_d))$. This result generalizes previous work of Herzog, who gave formulas for the socle generators of any ${\mathfrak m}$-primary homogeneous ideal $I$ in terms of Jacobian determinants of the entries of the matrices in a minimal homogeneous free $R$-resolution of $R/I$. Applications are given to iterated socles of determinantal ideals with generic height. In particular, we give surprisingly simple formulas for iterated socles of height two ideals in a power series ring in two variables. These generators are suitable determinants obtained from the Hilbert-Burch matrix.