A local version of Gotzmann's Persistence

Abstract

Gotzmann's Persistence states that the growth of an arbitrary ideal can be controlled by comparing it to the growth of the lexicographic ideal. This is used, for instance, in finding equations which cut out the Hilbert scheme (of subschemes of $\mathbf{P}^n$ with fixed Hilbert polynomial) sitting inside an appropriate Grassmannian. We introduce the notion of an {\it extremal ideal} which extends the notion of the lex ideal to other term orders. We then state and prove a version of Gotzmann's theorem for these ideals, valid in an open subset of a Grassmannian.