On the upper semi-continuity of the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity

Abstract

We show that the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity of a $d$-dimensional nonregular complete intersection over the algebraic closure of $F_p$, $p>2$ prime, is bounded by below by the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity of the hypersurface $\sum _{i=0}^{d} x_i^2=0$, answering positively a conjecture of Watanabe and Yoshida in the case of complete intersections.