Liftings of a monomial curve

Abstract

We study an operation, that we call lifting, creating non-isomorphic monomial curves from a single monomial curve. Our main result says that all but finitely many liftings of a monomial curve have Cohen-Macaulay tangent cones even if the tangent cone of the original curve is not Cohen-Macaulay. This implies that the Betti sequence of the tangent cone is eventually constant under this operation. Moreover, all liftings have Cohen-Macaulay tangent cones when the original monomial curve has a Cohen-Macaulay tangent cone. In this case, all the Betti sequences are nothing but the Betti sequence of the original curve.