When are symmetric ideals monomial?

Abstract

We study conditions on polynomials such that the ideal generated by their orbits under the symmetric group action becomes a monomial ideal or has a monomial radical. If the polynomials are homogeneous, we expect that such an ideal has a monomial radical if their coefficients are sufficiently general with respect to their supports. We prove this for instance in the case where some generator contains a power of a variable. Moreover, if the polynomials have only square-free terms and their coefficients do not sum to zero, then in a larger polynomial ring the ideal itself is square-free monomial. This has implications also for symmetric ideals of the infinite polynomial ring.