Inclics, galaxies, star configurations and Waldschmidt constants

Abstract

This paper introduces complexes of linear varieties, called inclics (for INductively Constructible LInear ComplexeS). As examples, we study galaxies (these are constructed starting with a star configuration to which we add general points in a larger projective space). By assigning an order of vanishing (i.e., a multiplicity) to each member of the complex, we obtain fat linear varieties (fat points if all of the linear varieties are points). The scheme theoretic union of these fat linear varieties gives an inclic scheme $X$. For such a scheme, we show there is an inductive procedure for computing the Hilbert function of its defining ideal $I_X$, regardless of the choice of multiplicities. As an application, we show how our results allow the computation of the Hilbert functions of, for example, symbolic powers $(I_X)^{(m)}$ for arbitrary $m$ of many new examples of radical ideals $(I_X)$, and we explicitly compute the Waldschmidt constants $\gamma(I_X)$ for galactic inclics $X$.