Integrally closed ideals in two-dimensional regular local rings are multiplier ideals

Abstract

There has arisen in recent years a substantial theory of "multiplier ideals'' in commutative rings. These are integrally closed ideals with properties that lend themselves to highly interesting applications. But how special are they among integrally closed ideals in general? We show that in a two-dimensional regular local ring with algebraically closed residue field, there is in fact no difference between "multiplier" and "integrally closed" (or "complete.") However, among multiplier ideals arising from an integer multiplying constant (also known as adjoint ideals) the only simple complete ones primary for the maximal ideal are those of order one.