Core and residual intersections of ideals

Abstract

D. Rees and J. Sally defined the core of an $R$-ideal $I$ as the intersection of all $($minimal$)$ reductions of $I$. However, it is not easy to give an explicit characterization of it in terms of data attached to the ideal. Until recently, the only case in which a closed formula was known is the one of integrally closed ideals in a two-dimensional regular local ring, due to C. Huneke and I. Swanson. The main result of this paper explicitly describes the core of a broad class of ideals with good residual properties in an arbitrary local Cohen-Macaulay ring. We also find sharp bounds on the number of minimal reductions that one needs to intersect to get the core.