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# Thermal conductivity of MgB2 in the superconducting state

## Abstract

We present thermal conductivity measurements on very pure and dense bulk samples, as indicated by residual resistivity values as low as 0.5 mW cm and thermal conductivity values higher than 200 W/mK. In the normal state we found that the Wiedemann Franz law, in its generalized form, works well suggesting that phonons do not contribute to the heat transport. The thermal conductivity in the superconducting state has been analysed by using a two-gap model. Thank to the large gap anisotropy we were able to evaluate quantitatively intraband scattering relaxation times of $`\pi `$ and $`\sigma `$ bands, which depend on the disorder in different way; namely, as the disorder increases, it reduces more effectively the relaxation times of $`\pi `$ than of $`\sigma `$ bands, as suggested by a recent calculation .

1.INTRODUCTION

Since the discovery of $`MgB_2`$ , experimental findings established a phonon mediated s-wave superconductivity. Despite its standard origin, superconductivity in $`MgB_2`$ showed several unusual properties that can be ascribed to the presence of two gaps with different amplitudes emphasized by tunnelling and specific heat measurements. Theoretical studies  pointed out that the peculiar electronic structure is the origin of this behaviour, being the larger gap, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\sigma `$, associated with two-dimensional $`\sigma `$ bands and the smaller one, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\pi `$, associated with three-dimensional $`\pi `$ bands. The two-gap model offers a simple explanation of several anomalies in the superconducting state . Multiband effects due to the different parity of $`\sigma `$ and $`\pi `$ bands were predicted in the normal state, too , and, recently, have found confirmation in transport measurements . Since interband impurity scattering turns out to be negligible, different bands behave as separate conduction channels in parallel and either $`\sigma `$ or $`\pi `$ channel prevails, depending on the disorder degree, being the clean (dirty) samples dominated by $`\pi `$($`\sigma `$) conduction.

In this paper we perform a quantitative analysis of thermal conductivity measurements in the superconducting state to investigate the role of $`\sigma `$ and $`\pi `$ bands depending on the sample purity.

Thermal conductivity $`\kappa `$ in the superconducting state among the other transport properties gives information on quasi-particle (QP) excitations and their dynamics with the advantage of probing only the QP response, since the superfluid does not carry heat. On the other hand, a major complication in the analysis of the thermal conductivity is often a substantial phonon contribution to the heat current. Consequently, the interpretation of experimental data can be ambiguous.

From a basic point of view, QP condensation below $`T_C`$ causes a decreasing of the electron contribution to the thermal conductivity, $`\kappa _e`$, and an increasing of the phonon contribution, $`\kappa _p`$; thus $`\kappa `$ below $`T_C`$ can show a shoulder or a peak depending whether the heat current is dominated by electrons or phonons, and a more complex behaviour is exhibited when both the contribution are important.

From the beginning the thermal conductivity of $`MgB_2`$ showed the unexpected feature of not exhibiting any signature of the superconducting transition . This ”anomaly” was initially ascribed to a perfect compensation of $`\kappa _e`$ and $`\kappa _p`$  or to the presence of large thermal resistance at the grain boundaries . As a matter of fact, the discovery that $`MgB_2`$ presents two gaps, one of which $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\pi `$ is so small that QP condensation becomes exponential only below a reduced temperature of the order of $`t=T/T_C0.2`$, opened new perspectives in the interpretation of thermal conductivity data. Hence, the two gap model successfully used to fit specific heat data  can also be applied to the thermal conductivity to estimate the fraction of energy carried by the two bands, providing a useful mean to investigate multiband effects.

2.EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS

Dense (up to 2.4 g/cm3, 90% of the theoretical density), clean and hard cylinder shaped samples have been prepared by a single step method similar to the one reported in ref . Amorphous or crystalline $`B`$ and $`Mg`$, put in $`Ta`$ crucibles welded under argon and closed in quartz tubes under vacuum, were heated up to 950C . An X rays spectrum of a sample prepared by crystalline $`B`$ is shown in fig. 1. All the peaks associated with the $`MgB_2`$ phase are present, no extra peaks due to the presence of free $`Mg`$ , $`MgO`$, are detected. In the inset, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) image of the same sample is shown. The image shows a network of well connected grains (2-4 mm large).

Two specimens were prepared for physical measurements: one from crystalline boron (MGB-1S) , one by using enriched $`{}_{}{}^{11}B`$ (MGB11-1S). The samples were cut in the shape of parallelepiped bar (1$`\times `$2-3$`\times `$12 mm3).

The thermal conductivity was measured using a steady state flux method with a heat flux sinusoidally modulated at low frequency ($`\nu `$=0.003-0.01 Hz ). Under these conditions the thermal conductivity is extracted as $`\kappa =`$ $`J(\nu )/T(\nu )`$, where $`J(\nu )`$ is the heat flow provided at the frequency $`\nu `$ and $`T(\nu )`$ is the temperature gradient oscillating at the frequency $`\nu `$. A small resistive heater (1$`\times `$1 mm2 ) is glued by GE varnish on the top end of the bar, being the bottom of the bar thermally connected with the sample holder. In such way a longitudinal heat flow is assured. The gradient applied to the sample was varied from 0.1 to 0.3 K/cm. Seebeck effect was measured simultaneously with the thermal conductivity providing a precise determination of the critical temperature.

3.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Resistivity measurements of the samples from 30 to 300 K are shown in fig. 2. In table 1 we report $`T_C^{onset}`$, the amplitude of the transition $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_C`$, $`\rho (40K)`$ and the residual resistivity ratio defined as $`RRR=\rho (300K)/\rho (40K)`$ for the two samples. The excellent quality of the samples is proved by the high $`T_C`$ values (38.9, 38.7 K), the small $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_C`$ values (0.2, 0.3 K), the low values of $`\rho (40K)`$ (0.6, 2.5 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$cm) and the large values of $`RRR`$ (7-15). Between the two samples the enriched $`{}_{}{}^{11}B`$ (MGB11-1S) has the lower resistivity values which can mainly be ascribed to the very good quality of the Eagle-Picher enriched $`{}_{}{}^{11}B`$ .

Thermal conductivity measurements of the two samples from 4 K to 250 K are shown in fig. 3. The outstanding quality and high density of the samples is evident from thermal transport properties as well. Indeed, these samples have more than one order of magnitude higher thermal conductivities than polycrystalline samples . In particular MGB11-1S exhibits a thermal conductivity as large as 215 W/Km at 65 K which is nearly two times higher than those of a single crystal , proving the excellent purity and density of this sample.

The thermal conductivity of MGB11-1S increases monotonically in the superconducting state, a change of slope is observable at about 8 K, while no signature of the superconducting transition is present; the normal state curve exhibits a pronounced maximum at about 70 K. Similar behaviour is presented by MGB-1S even if only data above 10 K are available.

The normal state behaviour of both samples is typical of a good metal in which the electron contribution to heat transport prevails. In order to estimate the relative weight of $`\kappa _e`$ and $`\kappa _{p\text{ }}`$we can consider the effective Lorenz number defined as $`L_{eff}=\kappa \rho /T`$. This quantity is assumed equal to $`L_0=2.45\times 10^8W\mathrm{\Omega }K^2`$ by the Wiedemann-Franz law (WFL); in good metals $`L_{eff}`$ is equal to $`L_0`$ at low temperature where the electron impurity scattering prevails, then it decreases showing a minimum at about one tenth the Debye temperature $`\mathrm{\Theta }_D`$, deeper and deeper with increasing sample purity ; in dilute alloys where $`\kappa _{p\text{ }}`$ is not at all negligible $`L_{eff}`$ becomes larger than $`L_0`$ and the ratio $`L_{eff}/L_0(1+\kappa _p/\kappa _e)`$ gives information on the relative weight of $`\kappa _e`$ and $`\kappa _{p\text{ }}`$ . In fig. 4 we plot $`L_{eff}`$ for the two samples from 40 to 250 K. The curves exhibit the typical behaviour of good metals with slightly different levels of purity: at low temperatures the curves approach $`L_0`$ from below; they show a minimum at around 130 K ($`0.1\mathrm{\Theta }_D`$, considering that in $`MgB_2`$ $`\mathrm{\Theta }_D`$1000 K ) which is more pronounced for MGB11-1S; finally, the curves increase towards $`L_0`$. Thus, we can conclude that in the normal state the WFL substantially works and $`\kappa _{p\text{ }}`$can be neglected. Similar results were obtained also in sintered sample with low thermal conductivity , while different conclusions have been drawn on a single crystal , where a violation of the WFL was claimed. Actually, in a small sample with not well defined geometrical shape as a single crystal the geometrical factor which relates conductivity to conductance can be different in thermal and electrical measurement, giving an uncorrect evaluation of the Lorenz number. In large bar cut specimens the geometrical factors can be estimated with better precision and more reliable verification of the WFL can be made.

In the superconducting state, since $`\kappa _p`$ decreases as $`(T/\mathrm{\Theta }_D)^3`$, we can assume that the thermal conductivity is dominated by electrons as well. Only at very low temperature $`TT_C`$ due to QP condensation which decreases $`\kappa _e`$ and enhances $`\kappa _p`$, their relative weight can change. Hence, we assume that lattice vibrations give negligible contribution to the thermal transport in the temperature region of our interest and in the following we analyse the thermal conductivity data in term of the electron contribution only.

The electron thermal conductivity in the superconducting state can be written as:

$$\kappa _e^s(T)=\kappa _e^n(T)g(t,\sigma )$$
(1)
where $`\kappa _e^n(T)`$ is the electron thermal conductivity in the normal state and $`g(t,\sigma )`$, for a given reduced gap, $`\sigma =\mathrm{\Delta }(0)/KT_C`$, and reduced temperature, $`t=T/T_C`$ , takes into account the QP condensation. The function $`g(t,\sigma )`$ was calculated in the framework of the BCS theory in the dirty and clean limit cases  reproducing very well thermal conductivity in the low temperature superconductors. To analyse experimental data using eq. (1) two main problems have to be solved. First, eq. (1) has to be generalized to multiband conduction; second, $`\kappa _e^n(T)`$ has to be estimated. We start from the latter issue.

At low temperature, if the scattering with impurities prevails, $`\kappa _e^n(T)`$ can be obtained by the WFL, $`\kappa _e^n(T)=L_0T/\rho _0`$ where $`\rho _0`$ is the residual resitivity. But in clean samples scattering with phonons has also to be considered. In ref.  this was done using a generalized WFL. We can write:

$$W_e=W_e^i+W_e^p$$
(2)
where, for the Matthiessen’s rule, the thermal resistance $`W_e=1/\kappa _e`$ is the sum of the thermal resistivity for scattering with impurities, $`W_e^i`$, and for scattering with phonons,$`W_e^p`$. Following ref.  we can write:

$$W_e^i=\frac{\rho _0}{L_0T}$$
(3)
$$W_e^p=\frac{\rho _p(T)\left[\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_D}{T}\right)^2\frac{3}{\pi ^2}\left(\frac{n_a}{2}\right)^{2/3}\right]}{L_0T}$$
(4)
where $`\rho _p(T)=4\rho ^{}\mathrm{\Theta }_D\left(\frac{T}{\mathrm{\Theta }_D}\right)^5_0^{\mathrm{\Theta }_D/T}\frac{x^5dx}{(e^x1)(1e^x)}`$ is given by the Bloch-Grüneisen equation, $`\rho `$ is the temperature coefficient and $`n_a`$ is the average number of electrons per unit cell in a given band.

Despite its simplicity, this model describes very well the normal state thermal conductivity of samples with very different degrees of disorder, with reasonable parameter values ; it contains the right features, vanishing to zero at low temperature linearly with $`T`$ and requiring only three free parameters ($`\rho _0`$, $`\mathrm{\Theta }_D`$ and $`C=4\rho ^{}\mathrm{\Theta }_D\frac{3}{\pi ^2}\left(\frac{n_a}{2}\right)^{2/3}`$) whose reliability can be checked by resistivity . The best fitting procedure is performed from 40 K to 200 K and the curves obtained with the parameter values listed in tab. 2 are reported in fig.4 as continuous lines. The theoretical curves fit the experimental data in the normal state in excellent way, while just below $`T_C`$, they lay above the data, decreasing linearly with temperature, where the experimental data start to decrease with larger slopes, due to the QP condensation. In tab. 2 we can see that the $`\mathrm{\Theta }_D`$ and $`C`$ values, which determine the intrinsic term , are nearly the same for both the samples, while the $`\rho _0`$ values change by a factor 4, as consequence of the different purity of the two samples; moreover we can see that the $`\rho _0`$ values are slightly lower than $`\rho (40K)`$ reported in table 1. Anyway, $`\rho _0`$, $`\mathrm{\Theta }_D`$ and $`C`$ values are in fair agreement with those obtained by fitting resistivity measurements .

Now we address the problem of generalizing eq. (1) in the case of multiband conduction. Following the approach used for the specific heat , we can write:

$$\frac{\kappa _e^s(T)}{\kappa _e^n(T)}=xg(t,\sigma _\pi )+(1x)g(t,\sigma _\sigma )$$
(5)
where $`\sigma _\pi =\mathrm{\Delta }_\pi (0)/KT_C`$ and $`\sigma _\sigma =\mathrm{\Delta }_\sigma (0)/KT_C`$; the relative weights $`x`$ and $`(1x)`$ that in ref.  are related to the energy which condenses in each band, in our case rather represent the energy fractions carried by the $`\pi `$ and $`\sigma `$ bands, respectively; thus the relative weights take into account the mobility of the carriers in each band, also.

If we indicate with $`\kappa _\pi ^n(T)=x\kappa _e^n(T)`$ and $`\kappa _\sigma ^n(T)=(1x)\kappa _e^n(T)`$ the thermal conductivity in the normal state of $`\pi `$ and $`\sigma `$ bands, eq. (5) states that the $`\pi `$ and $`\sigma `$ bands conduction occurs in parallel, as suggested by ref. .

Once a suitable g function is considered eq. (5) allows to fit the thermal conductivity data in the superconducting state with $`x,`$ $`\sigma _\pi `$ and $`\sigma _\sigma `$ as free parameters. To describe $`\sigma `$ and $`\pi `$ QP we choose the $`g`$ function in the dirty limit  in agreement with the fact that below 40 K $`\kappa _e^n(T)`$ is dominated by the scattering with impurities.

In figure 5 we show $`\kappa /T`$ in the superconducting state for the two samples. The continuous line represents $`\kappa _e^n(T)/T`$, the dashed line represents $`\kappa _e^s(T)/T`$ given by eq. (5). The parameters obtained with the best fit procedure are summarized in table 2. We can see that the two-gap model provides an excellent agreement with the experimental data. We find $`\sigma _\pi `$=0.57 ( 0.6) and $`\sigma _\sigma `$=2.17 (1.9) for MGB11-1S (MGB-1S); these values, which correspond to $`\mathrm{\Delta }(0)_\pi =1.9(2.0)`$ $`meV`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(0)_\pi =7.2(6.3)`$ $`meV`$ are in agreement with those found by specific heat data $`\sigma _\pi `$0.6-0.65 and $`\sigma _\sigma `$1.9-2.2. For the $`x`$ parameter we find 0.85 and 0.75 for MGB11-1S and MGB-1S, respectively. From the specific heat analysis it comes out that the energy fraction which condenses in each band is roughly the same; thus our results imply that carriers in $`\pi `$ bands are more mobile than in $`\sigma `$ bands. The lacking signature of superconducting transition in thermal conductivity, naturally follows from the two-gap model; in fact, we find that the main contribution to heat transport comes from carriers in $`\pi `$ bands whose strong condensation starts for $`\sigma _\pi /t>>1`$ which means $`t<0.2`$. In MGB11-1S data a change of slope occurs at about 8 K which in this framework represents the $`\pi `$ QP condensation; in fact in figure 5 the dotted line represents $`\kappa _e^s(T)/T`$ given by eq. (5) with $`x=1`$ and $`\sigma _\pi `$=0.57 . The curve fits well the data just below 10 K, while from 10 to 40 K also the $`\sigma `$ QP excitations contribute to the transport.

The right weight of $`\pi `$ and $`\sigma `$ contributions to transport can be calculated for both samples by $`\kappa _\pi ^n(T)=x\kappa _e^n(T)`$ and $`\kappa _\sigma ^n(T)=(1x)\kappa _e^n(T)`$ once the reliability of the $`x`$ and $`\kappa _e^n(T)`$ evaluation has been verified. We point out that in the fit procedure, varying slightly the gap values, the quality of the fit does not change very much, while the $`x`$ parameter for both the samples is very well defined. On the other hand, below $`T_C`$, $`\kappa _e^n(T)=L_0T/\rho _0`$ and therefore it only depends on the residual resistivity $`\rho _0`$ which can be experimentally estimated. So we can write:

$$\kappa _\pi ^n(T)=L_0T\frac{x}{\rho _0}=L_0T\omega _{p_\pi }^2\epsilon _0\tau _\pi ^i$$
(6)
$$\kappa _\sigma ^n(T)=L_0T\frac{1x}{\rho _0}=L_0T\omega _{p_\sigma }^2\epsilon _0\tau _\sigma ^i$$
(7)
where $`\epsilon _0`$ is the dielectric constant, $`\omega _{p_{\pi ,\sigma }}`$ are the plasma frequencies and $`\tau _{\pi ,\sigma }^i`$ are the intraband scattering relaxation times with impurities for $`\pi `$ and $`\sigma `$ bands.

Our fits state that carriers in $`\pi `$ bands mainly contribute to carry heat. Indeed, the plasma frequency is larger for $`\pi `$ than for $`\sigma `$ bands  and this is enhanced in polycrystalline samples by averaging in the three direction. On the other hand, the scattering relaxation times change from sample to sample. Introducing in eq.s (6) and (7) the values of $`x`$ and $`\rho _0`$ listed in tab. 2 and $`\omega _{p_\pi }`$= 6.226 eV and $`\omega _{p_\sigma }`$=3.403 eV  we obtain the scattering relaxation times for the two samples summarized in tab. 3. For MGB11-1S we find $`\tau _\pi ^i`$=2.2$`\times `$10-13 s and $`\tau _\sigma ^i`$=1.3$`\times `$10-13 s and the residual mean free paths $`l_{\pi ,\sigma }`$=$`\tau _{\pi ,\sigma }^iv_{F\pi ,\sigma }`$ , where $`v_{F\pi ,\sigma }`$ are the averaged Fermi velocities for $`\pi `$ an $`\sigma `$ bands ($`v_{F\pi }`$=5.6$`\times `$105 m/s and $`v_{F\sigma }`$=3.2$`\times `$105 m/s ), come out $`l_\pi `$=1.2 $`\times `$10-7m and $`l_\sigma `$=4.1 $`\times `$10-8 m. These values are very large, exceeding the lattice constants by more than two orders of magnitude, indicating the excellent purity of this sample. For MGB-1S the relaxation rates are reduced, but the residual mean free paths are still large ($`l_\pi `$=2.9 $`\times `$10-8 m and $`l_\sigma `$=1.8 $`\times `$10-8 m).

Now we can look at the relaxation times in more details. In MGB11-1S $`\tau _\pi ^i`$ $`>`$$`\tau _\sigma ^i`$, while in MGB-1S both the relaxation times are lower and $`\tau _\pi ^i`$ $`<`$$`\tau _\sigma ^i`$ . Practically, as the disorder increases, it reduces more effectively $`\tau _\pi ^i`$ than $`\tau _\sigma ^i`$. Actually, it is not easy to say which kind of disorder is present in MGB-1S, being itself a quite pure sample. But typical defects in $`MgB_2`$ are vacancies or substitutions in the $`Mg`$ site, which form more easily than in the $`B`$ site. In these cases the relaxation rate for intraband impurity scattering is larger in $`\pi `$ than in $`\sigma `$ bands ($`\tau _\pi ^i`$ $`<`$$`\tau _\sigma ^i`$) . This prediction, which was well verified for large amount of defects , is here confirmed also going from very pure to rather pure samples.

This result can open new perspectives in thermal transport properties. In fact, as the disorder increases, we expect that the transport of $`\sigma `$ bands prevails, and in superconducting state, the rapid QP condensation due to the large gap related to $`\sigma `$ bands can become evident. Thus, in disordered samples, we expect that the thermal conductivity would diminish in absolute values, but it should show a wide shoulder below $`T_C`$. This fact, if true, is quite unusual, in fact the disorder generally smoothens, rather than enhancing features.

As a matter of fact, looking at the thermal conductivity data in literature, polycrystalline samples do not show more evident shoulder than clean samples. We think that polycrystalline samples, that surely are more disordered than single crystals or bulk samples, present resistive grain boundaries, which contribute to the thermal resistance masking the intrinsic behaviour of superconducting grains . To emphasize the transport of carriers in $`\sigma `$ bands by the progressive inhibition of transport in $`\pi `$ bands, it is necessary to gradually introduce defects in pure samples. This can be done by suitable chemical substitution with the advantage of introducing a controlled amount of defects in a chosen site. Up to now, substituted samples have been obtained by sintering powders previously synthesized from the pure elements and such samples are not suitable for transport measurements. A second way is to introduce disorder by irradiation, but in this case the problem is to obtain a uniform defect distribution.

In conclusion, the role of disorder in $`MgB_2`$, which multiband effects make so peculiar, has been studied in pure samples by thermal transport measurements. We analysed in detail the thermal conductivity in the superconducting state, and thank to the large gap anisotropy we were able to evaluate quantitatively the intraband scattering relaxation times of $`\pi `$ and $`\sigma `$ bands.

###### Acknowledgement 1

This work work is partially supported by the Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia through the PRA UMBRA

Figure captions

Figure 1. X-Rays pattern diffraction of an enriched $`{}_{}{}^{11}B`$ bulk sample. The inset shows a SEM image of the same sample. The length scale of the picture is indicated in the bottom.

Figure 2. Resistivity measurements from 40 to 300 K.

Figure 3. Thermal conductivity measurements of the samples from 10 K to 250 K: the best fitting curves obtained with the parameter values listed in tab. 2 are reported as continuous lines.

Figure 4. The effective Lorenz number $`L_{eff}/L_0=\kappa \rho /(TL_0)`$ from 40 to 250 K.

Figure 5. $`\kappa /T`$ in the superconducting state. The continuous line represents the calculated $`\kappa _e^n/T`$; the dashed line represents $`\kappa _e^s/T`$ given by eq. (5) with the parameter values summarized in tab. 2; the dotted line represents $`\kappa _e^s/T`$ given by eq. (5) with $`x=1`$ and $`\sigma _\pi `$ given in tab.2.

Table captions

Table 1. Critical temperature $`T_C^{onset}`$, amplitude of the transition $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_C,`$ $`\rho (40K)`$ and residual resistivity ratio defined as $`RRR=\rho (300K)/\rho (40K)`$.

Table 2. Values of the parameters $`\theta `$, $`\rho _0`$ and $`C`$ obtained from the normal state thermal conductivity best fit and $`\sigma _\pi `$, $`\sigma _\sigma `$ and $`x`$ obtained by fitting eq. (5) with the superconducting state thermal conductivity.

Table 3. The intraband scattering time with impurities for $`\pi `$ and $`\sigma `$ bands, $`\tau _\pi ^i`$ and $`\tau _\sigma ^i`$and the residual mean free paths $`l_{\pi ,\sigma }`$=$`\tau _{\pi ,\sigma }^iv_{F\pi ,\sigma }`$ ($`v_{F\pi }`$=5.6$`\times `$105 m/s and $`v_{F\sigma }`$=3.2$`\times `$105 m/s are the averaged Fermi velocities for $`\pi `$ an $`\sigma `$ bands ).

Table 1

.    $`sample`$ $`T_C^{onset},K`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_C,K`$ $`\rho (40K),\mu \mathrm{\Omega }cm`$ $`RRR`$    MGB11-1S 38.7 0.2 0.58 15.3  MGB-1S 38.9 0.3 2.1 7.1

Table 2

| $`sample`$ | $`\theta ,K`$ | $`\rho _0,\mu \mathrm{\Omega }cm`$ | $`C,\mu \mathrm{\Omega }cmK^2`$ | $`\sigma _\pi `$ | $`\sigma _\sigma `$ | $`x`$ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MGB11-1S | 1190 | 0.50 | 12 | 0.57 | 2.17 | 0.85 |
| MGB-1S | 1130 | 1.9 | 18 | 0.60 | 1.90 | 0.75 |

Table 3

.    $`sample`$ $`\tau _\pi ^i,s`$ $`\tau _\sigma ^i,s`$ $`l_\pi ,m`$ $`l_\sigma ,m`$    MGB11-1S 2.2$`\times `$10-13 1.3$`\times `$10-13 1.2$`\times `$10-7 4.1$`\times `$10-8  MGB-1S 0.5$`\times `$10-13 0.6$`\times `$10-13 2.9$`\times `$10-8 1.8$`\times `$10-8


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# Ultrafast geometric manipulation of electron spin and detection of the geometric phase via Faraday rotation spectroscopy

## Abstract

Time-resolved Faraday rotation spectroscopy is currently exploited as a powerful technique to probe spin dynamics in semiconductors. We propose here an all-optical approach to geometrically manipulate electron spin and to detect the geometric phase by this type of extremely sensitive experiment. The global nature of the geometric phase can make the quantum manipulation more stable, which may find interesting application in quantum devices.

Faraday rotation (FR) describes the phenomenon of the polarization of a linearly polarized light, after transmitting through a magnetized medium, being rotated around the light propagation or wave-vector direction. FR results from the refraction index difference between the left- and right-circularly polarized light, and the amount of FR is proportional to the sample magnetization along the light propagation direction. Therefore, FR can be exploited as a non-invasive and sensitive means to measure material magnetization. In addition, the extreme sensitivity of the technique allows to develop an efficient method (i.e. the time-resolved pump-probe approach) to monitor and measure the spin dynamics of photoexcited electrons, holes, and excitons in semiconductors.Cro9597 ; Gup01

In this paper, we elaborate a scheme of ultrafast geometric manipulation of electron spin in semiconductor by an all-optical approach, and detection of the geometric phase via FR spectroscopy. Geometric phases, either the adiabatic Berry phaseBer84  or the non-adiabatic Aharonov-Anandan (AA) phase,Aha87  are of fundamental interest in physics. Their existences had been experimentally demonstrated in many physical systems, such as molecules,Del86  light polarization in fiber,Chi86  NMR,Tyc87 ; Sut87 ; Sut88  and neutron polarization.Bit87  In particular, also based on the FR principle, a scheme to determine the geometric phase (with a unique value $`\pi `$) was proposed, Zak91  where the geometric phase is associated with the light polarization vector, and the FR turns out to be an optical analogue of a spin-1/2 particle in a magnetic field. More recently, in the context of geometric quantum computation,Zan99  both the conditional Berry and AA phases were measured in liquid NMR system,Jon00 ; Du02  and were proposed to construct quantum logic gate. This interest is rooted in the fact that the quantum manipulation by geometric means seems to be fault-tolerant to certain types of computational errors. We also notice that, with the advent of spintronics, there exists rapidly growing interest in coherent control of spins in semiconductors. The spin degree of freedom with its coherent control in solid states is widely believed to have sound potential in quantum device applications. We thus anticipate that the study of the geometric manipulation of electron spin and the detection of the geometric phase via the extremely sensitive FR spectroscopy would be relevant to this remarkable trend.

Figure 1 depicts the time-resolved pump-probe FR spectroscopic setup.Cro9597 ; Gup01  Here, the pump laser pulse, which is circularly polarized, is applied first to create electron-hole pairs in the semiconductor sample. As a result of the selection rule imposed by angular momentum conservation, only the electron-hole pairs consistent with the photon polarization can be excited. Owing to the distinct relaxation timescales (the hole spin relaxation is typically much faster), the hole- and electron-spin relaxations are usually addressed separately. As a good approximation, in this work we only consider the effect of electron spins (in the conduction band). Conventionally, the photoexcited carrier (conduction electron) spins are subjected to the action of magnetic field, and the time-resolved FR signal reveals the motion of spins. In this work, we are interested in the spin motion involving a geometric phase that in turn generates observable effect in the FR signal. Viewing the typical electron spin relaxation time of nanoseconds,Cro9597 ; Gup01  magnetic field pulses shorter than this timescale are needed in order to implement the desired cyclic quantum evolution of spin state. Unfortunately, such short magnetic field pulses are beyond the scope of current technology. Very recently, an all-optical approach to the ultrafast manipulation of electron spin has been demonstrated by making use of the optical ac Stark effect that produces ultra-short effective magnetic field pulses.Gup01  In what follows, we first elaborate the principle of geometrically manipulating the electron spin and using FR to detect the geometric phase, then discuss the possible experimental implementation by an all-optical approach.

For the sake of generality, assume a mixed initial state of the carrier spins prepared by the pump laser in the conduction band (the hole spins in the valence band can be ignored because of their much shorter relaxation time)

$`\rho _i=w_0|00|+w_1|11|.`$ (1)
Here, $`|0`$ and $`|1`$ denote, respectively, the spin-down and spin-up states of the excited electron, with respect to the pump laser direction along the $`z`$-axis (see Fig. 1). Correspondingly, we define the $`x`$-axis in the plane determined by the pump and probe laser propagating directions, and the $`y`$-axis perpendicular to this plane. The time evolution of density operator is governed by the Liouville equation, that results in a formal solution

$`\rho (t)=U(t)\rho _iU^{}(t),`$ (2)
where the operator $`U(t)`$ describes the quantum evolution starting from the initial (mixed) state $`\rho _i`$.

To evolve the electron spin state, assume a magnetic field applied in the $`x`$-$`z`$ plane with, correspondingly, two projective components $`B_x`$ and $`B_z`$. For clarity, we first consider the non-adiabatic geometric evolution of the eigenstates of $`\sigma _y`$, $`\sigma _y|\pm =\pm |\pm `$, where $`\sigma _y=𝝈𝒆_y`$ is the Pauli spin operator defined along the $`𝒆_y`$ direction ($`y`$-axis). Specifically, the quantum cyclic evolution is accomplished by the following magnetic field pulses: (i) Switching on a $`\pi `$-pulse of magnetic field with components $`B_z`$ and $`B_x`$, the state $`|+`$ rotates around the magnetic field, from $`|+`$ in the $`𝒆_y`$ direction to $`|`$ in the $`𝒆_y`$ direction along curve $`ACB`$ on the Bloch sphere, see Fig. 2. (ii) Suddenly changing the magnetic field to another direction with components $`B_z`$ and $`B_x`$, subjecting to another $`\pi `$-pulse action the state $`|`$ rotates back to $`|+`$ along curve $`BDA`$ on the Bloch sphere. From the AA phase theory,Aha87  after the above cyclic evolution, the state $`|+`$ will acquire a geometric AA phase $`e^{i\gamma }`$, with $`\gamma =4\text{arctan}(B_x/B_z)`$. Note that during the above operation, the state vector is always being perpendicular to the magnetic field, thus no dynamic phase is accumulated in the evolution. This idea was first promoted by Suter et al in their seminal experiment of demonstrating the AA phase.Sut88  Similarly, the state $`|`$ will acquire an AA phase $`e^{i\gamma }`$ at the same time.

In analogy with the Mach-Zender interferometer where the photon wavefunction is splitted at the first beamsplitter, we consider the consequence of the above rotation on the eigenstates of $`\sigma _z`$: $`|0=\frac{i}{\sqrt{2}}(|+|)`$, and $`|1=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|++|)`$. Straightforwardly, the quantum state evolution is described by

$`|0`$ $``$ $`\text{cos}\gamma |0+\text{sin}\gamma |1,`$
$`|1`$ $``$ $`\text{cos}\gamma |1\text{sin}\gamma |0.`$ (3)
We see here that the geometric AA phase plays a role of rotating $`|0`$ and $`|1`$ into their superposition states. As a consequence, geometric rotation of the electron spin is realized. As emphasized in the geometric quantum computation,Zan99  the major advantage of geometric manipulation is its ability to be fault-tolerant to certain types of errors. Note also that the possible value of $`\gamma `$ ranges from $`0`$ to $`2\pi `$ by controlling the magnetic field components $`B_x`$ and $`B_z`$, implying an arbitrary geometric rotation of the spin state.

Below we show that the geometric phase can be detected by FR. In the representation of basis states $`\{|1,|0\}`$, the evolution described by Eq. (Ultrafast geometric manipulation of electron spin and detection of the geometric phase via Faraday rotation spectroscopy) can be equivalently reexpressed in terms of the evolution operator (matrix) as

$`U(T)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\text{cos}\gamma & \text{sin}\gamma \\ \text{sin}\gamma & \text{cos}\gamma \end{array}\right),`$ (6)
where $`T`$ is the entire geometric rotation time. Substituting Eq. (6) into (2), the final state of the conduction electron spins after the above geometric operation reads

$`\rho _f`$ $`=`$ $`U(T)\rho _iU^{}(T)`$ (9)
$`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}w_1\text{cos}^2\gamma +w_0\text{sin}^2\gamma & (w_0w_1)\text{cos}\gamma \text{sin}\gamma \\ (w_0w_1)\text{cos}\gamma \text{sin}\gamma & w_1\text{sin}^2\gamma +w_0\text{cos}^2\gamma \end{array}\right).`$
With this result, any physical quantities can be carried out by statistically averaging the corresponding variables over the system density matrix. In the context of FR experiment, the relevant quantity is the projection of sample magnetization in the propagating direction ($`𝒆_k`$) of the probe light. The corresponding variable operator is $`\sigma _k=𝝈𝒆_k=\mathrm{cos}\alpha \sigma _z\mathrm{sin}\alpha \sigma _x`$, where $`\alpha `$ is the angle between the pump- and probe-laser propagating directions. Straightforwardly, the component along $`𝒆_k`$ of the sample magnetization is calculated as

$`M_k\text{Tr}(\sigma _k\rho _f)=(w_1w_0)\text{cos}(\alpha 2\gamma ).`$ (10)
Two valuable observations on Eq. (10) are in order: (i) The geometric phase $`\gamma `$ has clear observable effect in $`M_k`$, thus in FR experiment. The dependence of FR angle $`\theta _F`$ ($`M_k`$) on the geometric phase $`\gamma `$ is in terms of the typical behavior of quantum interferences. In the limit of $`\gamma =0`$, Eq. (10) reduces to the result of FR experiment that probes the initially excited carrier spins in the semiconductor sample. (ii) The output intensity is an incoherently weighted average of the pure state interference profiles. It is easy to check that for pure state $`|1`$ and $`|0`$, the interference profiles are, respectively, $`\pm \text{cos}(\alpha 2\gamma )`$. The weight factors (i.e.,$`w_1`$ and $`w_0`$) are given in the initial state $`\rho _i`$. This structure is consistent with the recent work on geometric phases for mixed states in interferometry. Sjo00

The interferometry described above is also applicable to detect the adiabatic Berry phase, Ber84  provided the magnetic field can adiabatically complete a closed path in parameter space within the spin relaxation time. This condition can be satisfied in some spin systems, such as the liquid NMR or doped spins in solid-states. Particularly, if the initial state is an eigenstate of the system Hamiltonian, the adiabaticity will ensure that the state in the subsequent time will remain in the same eigenstate of the instantaneous Hamiltonian $`H(𝑩)`$ ($`𝑩`$ is the time-dependent magnetic field). As $`𝑩`$ traces a closed loop in the parameter space, a geometric phase is acquired. For the geometric-phase-based interference study, the initial state $`|0`$ (or $`|1`$) is a linear superposition of the eigenstates $`|\pm `$ of $`H(𝑩)`$, if the magnetic field is initially along the $`y`$-direction. As a result of adiabatically dragging the Hamiltonian along a closed loop, a phase difference between $`|+`$ and $`|`$ is caused. Noticeably, the phases acquired in this way have both the geometric and dynamic contributions. To detect merely the geometric Berry phase via an interferometry, it is necessary to eliminate the dynamic phase. An applicable approach is to use the refocusing technique known as spin-echo developed in NMR experiment, Ern87  which was also employed recently to eliminate the dynamic phases in geometric quantum computation.Jon00  The basic idea is to apply the cyclic evolution twice, with the second cyclic evolution retracing the first one but following the reversed path, and with the second application surrounded by a pair of fast $`\pi `$-transformations that swap the states $`|+`$ and $`|`$. The net effect of this compound operation is to cancel the dynamic phases, and maintain the geometric ones. Supposing that the net geometric phases acquired by $`|\pm `$ are $`e^{\pm i\gamma _B}`$, the interference pattern is analogous to the previous non-adiabatic one, only with $`\gamma `$ in Eq. (10) being replaced by $`\gamma _B`$.

Now let us return to the possible experimental implementation of the ultrafast geometric manipulation of electron spin and the detection of the non-adiabatic AA phase, which is the major concern of the present study. As we have mentioned earlier, a necessary condition for realizing the geometric manipulation is the cyclic evolution being much faster than the spin relaxation. Viewing that the conduction-electron spin relaxation time is about tens of nanoseconds, we thus need ultra-short magnetic field pulses. We show below how this goal can be achieved by virtue of the recent experiment on the ultrafast manipulation of electron spin by a novel all-optical approach.Gup01

The basic idea is to make use of an off-resonance ultrafast laser pulse to induce ac Stark shifts, which are in turn equivalent to the result of an effective magnetic field. To illustrate this, consider the energy level diagram of a semiconductor quantum well shown in Fig. 3(a). In the absence of magnetic field, the lowest conduction-band (CB) level is two-fold degenerate, denoted by spin states $`|\pm 1/2`$; and the valence-band (VB) states are denoted, respectively, by $`|\pm 3/2`$ and $`|\pm 1/2`$. Switching on a below-band-gap laser pulse (tipping pulse) with, for example, $`\sigma ^+`$-polarization, the laser will virtually couple the state pairs between VB state $`|3/2`$ and CB state $`|1/2`$, as well as CB state $`|+/2`$ and VB state $`|1/2`$. Other possible couplings between laser and electron-hole pairs are forbidden from the standpoint of angular momentum conservation. It is well known that this kind of off-resonance coupling will cause the ac Stark shifts of the relevant energy levels. In particular, the energy shifts can be estimated from the second-order perturbation theory as follows: $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{1/2}^c=|V_{3/2,1/2}|^2/\mathrm{\Delta }_1`$ for CB state $`|1/2`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{3/2}^v=|V_{3/2,1/2}|^2/(\mathrm{\Delta }_1)`$ for VB state $`|3/2`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{1/2}^c=|V_{1/2,+1/2}|^2/\mathrm{\Delta }_2`$ for CB state $`|+1/2`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{1/2}^v=|V_{1/2,+1/2}|^2/(\mathrm{\Delta }_2)`$ for VB state $`|1/2`$. Here, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_2`$ are the detunings of the photon energy with the two pair states; $`V_{3/2,1/2}`$ and $`V_{1/2,+1/2}`$ are coupling matrix elements of laser with the state pairs. Plotted in Fig. 3(b) are the shifted levels, with respect to the original un-perturbed ones in Fig. 3(a). We notice here that the level repulsive effect is obvious.

As experimental studies have indicated that the hole spins are either pinned along the quantum well growth direction or dephase rapidly ,Cro9597 ; Gup01  the FR dominantly measures the net effect of the CB electron spins. As a consequence, the ac Stark shifts of CB states $`|1/2`$ and $`|+1/2`$ can be equivalently described as the effect of an effective magnetic field $`B_{\text{eff}}`$, along the tipping-pulse direction. Denoting the CB level splitting by $`\delta _{\text{cb}}`$, the effective magnetic field $`B_{\text{eff}}=\delta _{\text{cb}}/(g_c\mu _B)`$, where $`g_c`$ is the Lande-$`g`$ factor, and $`\mu _B`$ is the Bohr magneton. As a rough estimate, corresponding to a CB level splitting of $`\delta _{\text{cb}}1`$ meV, the effective magnetic field $`B_{\text{eff}}`$ can be as high as $`20`$ T. In addition, the persistence time of this effective magnetic field is identical to the laser-pulse duration time, that can be as short as femtoseconds. Therefore, the resulting effective magnetic field can suffice the geometric operation (rotation) of the electron spin under study. To obtain the AA phase resulting interference pattern, the FR experiment can be arranged as follows: (i) After optical excitation using an ultrafast circularly polarized laser pulse, the initial spin state is prepared along the $`z`$-direction shown in Fig. 1. In the absence of magnetic field, the FR angle of the linearly polarized probe laser keeps unchanged. (ii) Switch on two tipping pulses in succession such that the effective magnetic field induced by the ac Stark effect rotates the electron spin in the manner as shown in Fig. 2. Note that the direction of the effective magnetic field is given by the tipping pulse propagating direction, and its magnitude depends on the detunings and the coupling strengths between the tipping laser and electron-hole pairs. After the action of the tipping pulses, the FR angle will gain a change as show by Eq. (10). (iii) Repeat procedures (i) and (ii) by making changes of the tipping pulse directions. A series of values of the AA phase $`\gamma `$ can be measured, and accordingly the interference pattern resulting from the geometric AA phase can be obtained.

In summary, we have elaborated an experimentally accessible scheme to geometrically manipulate electron spin, and to detect the non-adiabatic geometric phase via FR spectroscopy. This study might be of fundamental interest and relevant to the notion of spintronics. Viewing the particular significance of ultrafast manipulation of electron spin, the proposed study can further confirm the novel approach developed in ref. Gup01, . Moreover, the proposed geometric scheme may further stabilize the quantum operation, i.e., being of fault-tolerance to some operational errors. Finally, the proposed interference scheme based on the FR setup can also be applied to detect geometric phases in other spin systems, including the adiabatic Berry phase as long as the spin relaxation time is longer than the experimentally accessible magnetic field duration time.

Acknowledgments. Support from the Major State Basic Research Project No. G001CB3095 of China, the Special Fund for“100 Person Project” from Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Government are gratefully acknowledged.


text:
# On the integral closure of idealsPart of the results contained in this paper were obtained while the first author was visiting Rutgers University and was partially supported by CNR grant 203.01.63, Italy. The second and third authors were partially supported by the NSF.

## 1 Introduction

Let $`R`$ denote a Noetherian ring and $`I`$ one of its ideals. The integral closure of $`I`$ is the ideal $`\overline{I}`$ of all elements of $`R`$ that satisfy an equation of the form

$$X^n+a_1X^{n1}+\mathrm{}+a_{n1}X+a_n=0,a_iI^i.$$

The literature is very spare on methods to find this ideal from $`I`$, except when $`R`$ is a ring of polynomials over a field and $`I`$ is an ideal generated by monomials: $`\overline{I}`$ is then the monomial ideal defined by the integral convex hull of the exponent vectors of $`I`$ $`(`$see (Eisenbudbook, , p. 140)$`)`$. Already here the problem has computationally a non-elementary solution. Thus the general problem can be likened to solving a nonlinear integer programming question—quite a tall order.

By comparison, the task of computing the radical, $`\sqrt{I}`$, of the ideal $`I`$ is simpler as one is only required to describe the solutions in $`R`$ of equations of the form

$$X^mb=0,bI.$$

We always have

$$I\overline{I}\sqrt{I},$$

but in general these ideals differ from one another. A twin problem, but much simpler to approach, consists in deciding the equality $`I=\overline{I}`$. Such ideals are called integrally closed or complete.

There are two basic ways to approach these questions. A theoretical way of testing whether or not an element $`z`$ belongs to the integral closure of an ideal is based on the so called determinant trick: an element $`zR`$ is integral over $`I`$ if and only if there exists a finitely generated faithful $`R`$-module $`M`$ such that $`zMIM`$. In fact, for any such $`M`$ one has that

$$IM:M\overline{I}.$$

In particular, if the ideal $`I`$ is integrally closed then

$`IM:M=I`$, (1)
for any finitely generated faithful $`R`$-module $`M`$. The issue is to find appropriate modules for a given ideal $`I`$. Some of the natural choices we are going to employ are the powers of the ideal and of its radical, Jacobian ideals, and modules of syzygies.

Another crude theoretical approach is through the theory of the Rees algebra of $`I`$

$$=R[It]=R+It+I^2t^2+\mathrm{}R[t],$$

and one looks for its integral closure in $`R[t]`$,

$$R+\overline{I}t+\overline{I^2}t^2+\mathrm{}R[t].$$

This is obviously wasteful of resources since the integral closure of all the powers of $`I`$ will be computed. Nevertheless, there are some instances when this path can be profitably taken. First, in some special cases, it turns out that $`\overline{I^n}=(\overline{I})^n`$ for all $`n1`$. Then, notions typical of the theory of Rees algebras can be brought in. For example, we say that $`JI`$ is a reduction of $`I`$ if $`I^{r+1}=JI^r`$ for some non-negative integer $`r`$. A reduction is said to be minimal if it is minimal with respect to containment. It is known that an ideal has the same integral closure as any of its reductions $`(`$see NR $`)`$. Appropriately we can then view all these algebras as modules over the Rees algebra $`R[Jt]`$.

Our goals can be framed in terms of the following two issues:

development of effective integral closedness criteria, i.e., tests for the equality $`I=\overline{I}`$;

development of the means to find the integral closure when the ideal $`I`$ fails to pass the above tests.

Our results do not meet this ambitious program, except for some classes of ideals. In Sections $`2`$ and $`3`$, we give a very direct validation of the equality $`I=\overline{I}`$ in two cases of interest: $`(`$i$`)`$ $`I`$ is a generic complete intersection, or $`(`$ii$`)`$ $`I`$ is a generically Gorenstein ideal. In these cases we provide a ‘closed formula’ $`(`$see Theorem 2.1 and Theorem 3.3$`)`$ which says that $`I`$ is integrally closed precisely when

$$\sqrt{I}=IL:L^2,$$

where $`L=I:\sqrt{I}`$. We also show $`(`$see Theorem 3.1$`)`$ that the equality

$$I^2:I=I$$

gives a practical way of testing whether or not Gorenstein ideals of codimension three are generically complete intersections.

We recall that an ideal $`I`$ satisfies a property generically if $`I_𝔭`$ satisfies that property for every minimal prime $`𝔭`$ of $`I`$. We also say that an ideal $`I`$ in a local ring $`R`$ is a complete intersection of Goto-type if $`R`$ is regular of dimension $`d`$ and $`I=(x_1,\mathrm{},x_{d1},x_d^t)`$, where $`x_1,\mathrm{},x_d`$ is a regular system of parameters $`(`$see (Goto, , Theorem 1.1)$`)`$. The import of these special complete intersections is that they are exactly the complete intersections which are integrally closed.

In Section 4, we then go on studying the following question: When $`I`$ integrally closed implies $`I`$ normal. Two cases are considered: the integral closure of complete intersections of codimension $`2`$ in Cohen–Macaulay local rings of arbitrary dimensions such that $`R_𝔭`$ has rational singularities in codimension two $`(`$see Theorem 4.1$`)`$ and perfect Gorenstein ideals of codimension three in polynomials rings over fields of characteristic zero and with certain restrictions on the $`(`$local$`)`$ number of generators $`(`$see Theorem 4.2$`)`$. This makes the computational approach through Rees algebras more accessible even though not inexpensive $`(`$see Remark 6, Example 4, and Remark 7$`)`$.

## 2 Complete intersections

As in the case of computation of radicals $`(`$see EHV $`)`$, complete intersection ideals are the simplest case of study. A careful examination of Goto , CPV , and CP1  shows that they deal with complementary aspects of integrality for such ideals: While the first paper is concerned with integrally closed complete intersections, the remaining two require that the ideal be not integrally closed in their hypotheses.

We are going to frame these two local aspects together into a global integral closedness criterion that, when it fails, will still provide fresh elements which are integral over the ideal.

###### Theorem 2.1

Let $`I`$ be a height unmixed ideal in a Cohen–Macaulay ring $`R`$. Suppose that $`I`$ is generically a complete intersection. Then $`I`$ is integrally closed if and only if

$$\sqrt{I}=IL:L^2,$$
(2)
where $`L=I:\sqrt{I}`$.

###### Proof

Let us assume first that $`I`$ is an integrally closed ideal. In order to show that $`(`$2$`)`$ holds it will suffice to prove it for any $`𝔭\text{Ass}(R/\sqrt{I})=\text{Ass}(R/I)`$, given that $`\sqrt{I}IL:L^2`$, by the definition of $`L`$. If $`𝔭\text{Ass}(R/I)`$, the strict inclusion $`(\sqrt{I})_𝔭=𝔭R_𝔭I_𝔭L_𝔭:L_𝔭^2`$ implies $`L_𝔭^2=I_𝔭L_𝔭`$. But $`I_𝔭`$ is integrally closed, which forces the equality $`L_𝔭=I_𝔭`$: a contradiction.

Conversely, suppose that $`(`$2$`)`$ holds. Since $`I`$ is unmixed, to show that $`I=\overline{I}`$ it suffices to check it at each minimal prime $`𝔭`$ of $`I`$. First, if for such prime $`R_𝔭`$ is not a regular local ring, the ideal $`L_𝔭`$ satisfies $`I_𝔭L_𝔭=L_𝔭^2`$ by CP1 , which violates $`(`$2$`)`$. Let $`𝔭\text{Ass}(R/I)`$, so that $`I_𝔭=(f_1,f_2,\mathrm{},f_g)`$, $`g=\text{height}(I)`$. If two of the $`f_i`$’s belong to $`𝔭^2R_𝔭`$, by (CPV, , Theorem 2.1), one has that the ideal $`L_𝔭`$ has reduction number $`1`$ with respect to $`I_𝔭`$, i.e., $`L_𝔭^2=I_𝔭L_𝔭`$, which again would contradict $`(`$2$`)`$. Thus at most one of the $`f_i`$’s lies in the $`𝔭^2R_𝔭`$. This means that $`I_𝔭`$ satisfies the conditions of Goto  and is therefore integrally closed.

###### Remark 1

To check the hypotheses on the ideal $`I`$ one can proceed as follows $`(`$see Eisenbudbook ; xcompu $`)`$. Let $`I`$ be an ideal of codimension $`m`$.

Suppose that $`R`$ is $`(`$locally$`)`$ a Gorenstein ring and let $`J=(f_1,\mathrm{},f_m)`$ be a subideal of $`I`$ of codimension $`m`$. Then $`I`$ is height unmixed if and only if

$$I=J:(J:I).$$

Let $`R`$ be a Cohen–Macaulay ring and let

$$R^p\stackrel{\phi }{}R^qI0$$

be a presentation of $`I`$. Then $`I`$ is generically a complete intersection if and only if the $`(`$Fitting ideal$`)`$ ideal $`I_{qm}(\phi )`$ generated by the minors of $`\phi `$ of order $`qm`$ has height at least $`m+1`$.

If $`I`$ is not integrally closed, elements that go into the test of Theorem 2.1 can be used to produce new elements in its integral closure. This occurs as follows

###### Corollary 1

Let $`𝔭_1,\mathrm{},𝔭_n`$ be the minimal prime ideals of $`I`$ listed in such a way that $`I_𝔭`$ is integrally closed for $`𝔭=𝔭_i`$ for $`is`$, but not at the other primes. Set

$$A=\sqrt{I}=𝔭_1\mathrm{}𝔭_n,B=𝔭_1\mathrm{}𝔭_s,C=𝔭_{s+1}\mathrm{}𝔭_n.$$

Let $`L=I:\sqrt{I}`$. Then

$$B=IL:L^2\text{and}C=A:B.$$

If $`I`$ is not integrally closed, that is if $`BA`$, then

$$H=I:CI\text{and}H^2=IH.$$

Note that one can arrange the computation in a manner that does not require $`\sqrt{I}`$ directly. The following formulation mimics some of the radical formulas of EHV .

###### Theorem 2.2

Let $`R`$ be a ring of polynomials over a field of characteristic zero and let $`I`$ be a height unmixed ideal. Let $`J`$ denote the Jacobian ideal of $`I`$. If $`I`$ is integrally closed then

$$IJ:J=I.$$

The converse holds if $`I`$ is generically a complete intersection.

###### Proof

We only consider the converse. To show that $`I`$ is integrally closed it suffices to show that its primary components are integrally closed. Localizing at minimal primes of $`I`$ reduces the question to Theorem 2.1. But for any such prime $`𝔭`$, $`J_𝔭`$ is the generic socle of $`I_𝔭`$.

###### Example 1

The converse of Theorem 2.2 does not hold without the assumption of $`I`$ being generically a complete intersection. For example, let $`R`$ be a regular local ring of dimension $`2`$ and maximal ideal $`𝔪=(x,y)`$. Let $`I`$ be the Northcott ideal $`(x^2,xy^4,y^5)`$. Its Jacobian ideal is $`J=(xy^4,x^2y^3,y^8)`$. It can be checked that the condition $`IJ:J=I`$ is satisfied but $`I`$ is not integrally closed. Indeed, the element $`xy^3I`$ belongs to the integral closure of $`I`$ as it satisfies the monic equation $`X^2y(x^2y^5)=0`$. It can actually be checked that $`\overline{I}=(x^2,xy^3,y^5)`$.

###### Remark 2

When applying these methods where $`L`$ is either $`I:\sqrt{I}`$, or the ordinary Jacobian ideal, the following comment may be helpful. If the test fails, that is if

$$IL:L=I^{}I,$$

we could replace $`I`$ by $`I^{}`$ if the latter is height unmixed. Indeed it has the same radical as $`I`$ so that its generic socle would be

$$L^{}=I^{}:\sqrt{I},$$

and we would test for

$$I^{}L^{}:L^{}=I^{},$$

and so on. There may be difficulties to this process. For instance, it was an old question of Krull whether the integral closure of primary ideals are still primary. One of the authors $`(`$see Huneke $`)`$ gave a counterexample in characteristic two but the characteristic zero case is still open.

## 3 Gorenstein ideals

The first result in this section describes, for a special class of ideals, another practical way of telling when an ideal is generically a complete intersection. More precisely, Theorem 3.1 shows that, in a Gorenstein ring $`R`$, a perfect Gorenstein ideal $`I`$ of codimension three is generically a complete intersection if and only if $`I^2:I=I`$. An immediate consequence of Theorem 2.1 and Theorem 3.1 is that for any such $`I`$ the following conditions are equivalent:

$`I`$ is an integrally closed ideal;

$`I^2:I=I`$ and $`\sqrt{I}=IL:L^2`$, where $`L=I:\sqrt{I}`$.

The rest of the section will be devoted to prove a generalization of this fact. To be more precise, it will be shown in Theorem 3.3 that for a generically Gorenstein ideal $`I`$ the condition $`\sqrt{I}=IL:L^2`$, where $`L=I:\sqrt{I}`$, is necessary and sufficient to guarantee that $`I`$ be integrally closed, without restrictions on its height. Some regularity assumptions on the ring $`R`$ are required as pointed out in Example 2.

###### Theorem 3.1

Let $`R`$ be a Gorenstein ring and let $`I`$ be a perfect Gorenstein ideal of codimension three. Then $`I`$ is generically a complete intersection if and only if

$$I^2:I=I.$$

###### Proof

According to He , for these ideals the conormal module $`I/I^2`$ is Cohen–Macaulay and its associated primes are the minimal primes of $`I`$. This means that we may localize at those primes and reduce the question to the case of a local ring $`R`$ of dimension $`3`$, from which it follows that if $`I`$ is a complete intersection, then the asserted equality holds.

Conversely, suppose that $`I^2:I=I`$. This means that $`I/I^2`$ is a faithful module of the Artinian, Gorenstein local ring $`R/I`$ and therefore there is an embedding $`R/II/I^2`$, which leads to a decomposition

$$I/I^2R/IM,$$

since $`R/I`$ is self-injective. We may assume that the image of $`R/I`$ in $`I/I^2`$ has a lift $`f`$ which is a regular element of $`I`$. As in (W1, , Proof of Lemma 2), this leads to a decomposition

$$I/fI(f)/fII/(f)R/II/(f).$$

This equality implies that as an $`R/(f)`$–module, $`I/(f)`$ is a perfect ideal $`(`$of codimension two$`)`$, whose first Betti number is the same as the second Betti number of $`I`$. Thus $`I/(f)`$ is a perfect, Gorenstein ideal of codimension two and therefore it is a complete intersection, which means that $`I`$ is also a complete intersection.

Corollary 2 generalizes a similar result contained in (SSV, , Corollary 2.7), as the ideals under considerations are only supposed to be integrally closed and not normal.

###### Corollary 2

Let $`R`$ be a Gorenstein ring and let $`I`$ be a perfect Gorenstein ideal of codimension three. If $`I`$ is integrally closed then it is generically a complete intersection.

###### Proof

As $`I`$ is integrally closed one has, in particular, that $`I^2:I=I`$. The assertion then follows from Theorem 3.1.

###### Remark 3

A similar argument as the one in the proof of Theorem 3.1 will show that if $`(R,𝔪)`$ is a local ring of dimension $`d3`$ and $`I`$ is an $`𝔪`$-primary ideal that is perfect and Gorenstein then $`I`$ is a complete intersection if and only if

$$\stackrel{d2}{}I/I^2$$

is a faithful $`R/I`$–module.

###### Remark 4

From a computational point of view, the two methods $`(`$the one involving the Fitting ideals of $`I`$ and the one described in Theorem 3.1$`)`$ are essentially equivalent.

The next two lemmas are crucial in the proof of Theorem 3.3. The first of them is about the existence of a dual basis.

###### Lemma 1

Let $`(R,𝔪)`$ be a Noetherian local ring with embedding dimension $`n`$ at least two. Let $`I`$ be an $`𝔪`$-primary irreducible ideal contained in $`𝔪^2`$. If $`𝔪=(x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$ then there exist $`y_1,\mathrm{},y_n`$ such that for all $`1i,jn`$

$$x_iy_j\delta _{ij}\mathrm{\Delta }\text{mod }I,$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is a lift in $`R`$ of a socle generator of $`R/I`$ and $`\delta _{ij}`$ denotes Kronecker’s delta.

###### Proof

Note that $`I(x_1,\mathrm{},x_j^2,\mathrm{},x_n)`$, as $`I`$ is contained in $`𝔪^2`$. For any $`1jn`$ it will be enough to find $`y_jI:(x_1,\mathrm{},x_j^2,\mathrm{},x_n)`$ such that $`y_jI:(x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$. If not, one must have $`I:(x_1,\mathrm{},x_j^2,\mathrm{},x_n)=I:(x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$ and hence $`(x_1,\mathrm{},x_j^2,\mathrm{},x_n)=(x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$, as $`\text{Hom}(\text{ }\text{ },R/I)`$ is a self-dualizing functor: a contradiction.

The element $`y_j`$ has the property that $`x_iy_jI`$ for any $`ij`$ and $`x_jy_jI:(x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$. Hence we can write $`y_jx_j=a_j+g_j\mathrm{\Delta }`$ with $`a_jI`$ and $`g_j0`$. However, $`g_j(x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$ as otherwise $`y_jx_jI`$. But then $`g_j`$ is an invertible element, so that $`g_j^1y_j`$ will have all the required properties as in $`(`$3$`)`$.

###### Lemma 2

Let $`(R,𝔪)`$ be a Noetherian local ring with embedding dimension $`n`$ at least two. Suppose that $`I`$ is an $`𝔪`$-primary ideal contained in $`𝔪^2`$ such that $`R/I`$ is Gorenstein. Letting $`L=I:𝔪`$ then the following conditions hold:

$`L`$ has reduction number one with respect to $`I`$, i.e., $`L^2=IL`$;

$`I𝔪=L𝔪`$.

###### Proof

$`(`$a$`)`$ As $`L=(I,\mathrm{\Delta })`$ one only needs to show that $`\mathrm{\Delta }^2IL`$. If we let $`𝔪=(x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$, by Lemma 1 we can find $`y_1,\mathrm{},y_n`$ and $`a_1,\mathrm{},a_nI`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Delta }=x_iy_i+a_i`$ for $`1in`$. As $`n2`$, we can write

$`\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$ $`=`$ $`(x_1y_1+a_1)(x_2y_2+a_2)=x_1y_1x_2y_2+x_1y_1a_2+a_1x_2y_2+a_1a_2`$
$`=`$ $`(x_1y_2)(x_2y_1)+(x_1y_1)a_2+(x_2y_2)a_1+a_1a_2.`$
Note that each term in the last sum belongs to the ideal $`I(I,\mathrm{\Delta })=I^2+I\mathrm{\Delta }=IL`$.

$`(`$b$`)`$ We only need to show the inclusion $`L𝔪I𝔪`$, or better $`\mathrm{\Delta }I𝔪:𝔪`$, as $`L=(I,\mathrm{\Delta })`$. But for any $`1in`$ pick $`ji`$ and write $`\mathrm{\Delta }=x_jy_j+a_j`$ with $`a_jI`$; hence

$$x_i\mathrm{\Delta }=x_i(x_jy_j+a_j)=x_j(x_iy_j)+x_ia_j𝔪I$$

as desired.

###### Theorem 3.2

Let $`(R,𝔪)`$ be a Noetherian local ring and let $`I`$ be an $`𝔪`$-primary ideal such that $`R/I`$ is Gorenstein. Then either

there exists a minimal generating set $`x_1,\mathrm{},x_n`$ of the maximal ideal $`𝔪`$ such that $`I=(x_1,\mathrm{},x_{n1},x_n^s)`$, or

$`L^2=IL`$, where $`L=I:𝔪`$.

###### Proof

Assume that $`(`$a$`)`$ does not hold. This remains true after completing and further it suffices to prove $`(`$b$`)`$ after completion. We can then write $`R`$ as a homomorphic image of a regular local ring $`S`$ and it will suffice to prove $`(`$b$`)`$ for the pullback of $`I`$. Notice that the pullback of $`I`$ to $`S`$ cannot satisfy $`(`$a$`)`$. Henceforth we may assume that $`R`$ is regular and that $`I`$ does not satisfy $`(`$a$`)`$. Let $`t`$ be the vector space dimension of $`(I+𝔪^2)/𝔪^2`$ and choose $`x_1,\mathrm{},x_t`$ in $`I`$ whose images span this vector space. Replace $`R`$ by $`R/(x_1,\mathrm{},x_t)`$ and $`I`$ by $`I/(x_1,\mathrm{},x_t)`$. We may then assume that $`I`$ is in $`𝔪^2`$. If the dimension of $`R`$ is at least $`2`$ then Lemma 2 yields $`(`$b$`)`$. If not $`R`$ is either a field or a discrete valuation ring and in this case $`I`$ satisfies $`(`$a$`)`$, a contradiction.

###### Remark 5

Under the assumptions of Theorem 3.2 if we also assume that $`R`$ is regular then we can restate $`(`$a$`)`$ as

$`I`$ is a complete intersection of Goto-type.

###### Theorem 3.3

Let $`I`$ be a height unmixed ideal in a ring $`R`$. Suppose that $`I`$ is a generically Gorenstein ideal and that $`R_𝔭`$ is a regular local ring for all prime ideals $`𝔭`$ minimal over $`I`$. Then $`I`$ is integrally closed if and only if

$$\sqrt{I}=IL:L^2,$$
(4)
where $`L=I:\sqrt{I}`$. If either of these equivalent conditions hold, $`I`$ is generically a complete intersection of Goto-type.

###### Proof

Let us assume first that $`I`$ is an integrally closed ideal. In order to show that $`(`$4$`)`$ holds it will suffice to prove it for any $`𝔭\text{Ass}(R/\sqrt{I})=\text{Ass}(R/I)`$, given that $`\sqrt{I}IL:L^2`$, by the definition of $`L`$. If $`𝔭\text{Ass}(R/I)`$, the strict inclusion $`(\sqrt{I})_𝔭=𝔭R_𝔭I_𝔭L_𝔭:L_𝔭^2`$ implies $`L_𝔭^2=I_𝔭L_𝔭`$. But $`I_𝔭`$ is integrally closed, which forces the equality $`L_𝔭=I_𝔭`$: a contradiction.

Conversely, suppose that $`(`$4$`)`$ holds. Since $`I`$ is unmixed, to show that $`I=\overline{I}`$ it suffices to check it at each minimal prime $`𝔭`$ of $`I`$. Without loss of generality we may assume that $`R`$ is regular and $`R/I`$ is zero dimensional Gorenstein. Then by Theorem 3.2 either $`L^2=IL`$ or $`I`$ is a complete intersection of Goto-type. The first possibility cannot happen by $`(`$4$`)`$ so $`I`$ must be a complete intersection of Goto-type and is therefore integrally closed.

###### Example 2

The regularity assumptions in Theorem 3.3 are required. For example, let $`S=k[X,Y,Z]`$ be a polynomial ring in $`3`$ variables over a field $`k`$. Let $`R=S/(X^4+Y^4+Z^4)`$ and let $`x`$, $`y`$, and $`z`$ denote the image of $`X`$, $`Y`$, and $`Z`$ in $`R`$, respectively. $`R`$ is easily seen to be a two dimensional Gorenstein ring. Consider the $`R`$-ideal $`I=(x,y,z^2)`$. Its lift $`(X,Y,Z^2)`$ back in $`S`$ is a complete intersection of Goto-type, hence it is integrally closed. However, $`I`$ itself is not an integrally closed $`R`$-ideal as $`L=(x,y,z)`$ is integral over $`I`$. However, note that $`(x,y,z)^2I(x,y,z)`$.

###### Corollary 3

With the same assumptions as in Theorem 3.3, if in addition $`I`$ is an integrally closed ideal, in the linkage class of a complete intersection with $`R/I`$ Gorenstein then $`I^2`$ is integrally closed as well.

###### Proof

Since $`R/I`$ is Gorenstein and in the linkage class of a complete intersection $`R/I^2`$ is Cohen–Macaulay, and in particular unmixed $`(`$see Buch-th $`)`$. To prove $`I^2`$ is integrally closed it then suffices to prove it locally at its minimal primes. After localizing at any such prime $`I`$ is a complete intersection of Goto-type. But then all powers of $`I`$ are also generically complete intersections of Goto-type.

###### Corollary 4

Let $`I`$ be an unmixed ideal of a regular local ring $`R`$ and suppose that $`\overline{I}`$ is Gorenstein. Then $`I`$ is integrally closed and it is generically a complete intersection of Goto-type.

###### Proof

It is enough to show the equality $`I=\overline{I}`$ at the minimal associated primes of $`I`$. Thus, after localizing, we may assume $`R/\overline{I}`$ to be a zero dimensional Gorenstein ring. By Theorem 3.3 $`\overline{I}`$ is generically a complete intersection ideal of Goto-type. In particular $`\overline{I}`$ cannot have proper reductions. As $`I`$ is always a reduction of its integral closure, this forces the equality $`I=\overline{I}`$, hence the claim.

We conclude the section by pointing out that condition $`(`$4$`)`$ in Theorem 3.3 is not sufficient to guarantee the integral closedness in the case of ideals of type greater than or equal to $`2`$.

###### Example 3

Let $`R`$ be a regular local ring of dimension $`2`$ and maximal ideal $`𝔪=(x,y)`$. The Northcott ideal $`I=(x^2,xy^4,y^5)`$ has type $`t=2`$ and satisfies the condition $`IL:L^2=𝔪=\sqrt{I}`$, with $`L=(x^2,xy^3,y^4)`$. However $`I`$ is not integrally closed, as we already observed in Example 1.

## 4 Integral closedness and normality

There are instances when it is more appropriate to prove that an ideal is normal to avail ourselves of the Jacobian criterion.

### Codimension two complete intersections

The simplest case for tackling the question of computing the integral closure of ideals is certainly that of a codimension two complete intersection. Several known facts come together to make the approach via Rees algebras amenable. The methods to find the integral closure of affine domains become an option $`(`$see xcompu $`)`$.

###### Theorem 4.1

Let $`R`$ be a Cohen–Macaulay local ring and suppose that $`R_𝔭`$ has rational singularities for all codimension two prime ideals $`𝔭`$. If $`J=(a,b)`$ is a complete intersection of codimension two, then $`\overline{J^n}=(\overline{J})^n`$ for all $`n1`$.

###### Proof

For all $`n1`$ one has that

$$(a,b)^{n1}\overline{J}(\overline{J})^n\overline{J^n},$$

hence it will be enough to show that the equality

$$(a,b)^{n1}\overline{J}=\overline{J^n}$$
(5)
holds for all $`n1`$.

We claim that $`R/(a,b)^{n1}\overline{J}`$ is unmixed of height two. First of all, observe that

$$(a,b)^{n1}/(a,b)^{n1}\overline{J}(a,b)^{n1}/(a,b)^nR/\overline{J}(R/(a,b))^nR/\overline{J}(R/\overline{J})^n,$$

as $`(a,b)^{n1}/(a,b)^n`$ is isomorphic to the degree $`n1`$ component of a polynomial ring in two variables with coefficients in $`R/(a,b)`$. On the other hand, one can consider the short exact sequence

$$0(a,b)^{n1}/(a,b)^{n1}\overline{J}R/(a,b)^{n1}\overline{J}R/(a,b)^{n1}0.$$

The claim now follows from the fact that both $`R/\overline{J}`$ and $`R/(a,b)^{n1}`$ are unmixed $`(`$for the first fact see (Ratliff, , Theorem 2.12) and also (McA, , Theorem 4.1)$`)`$.

Finally, it is enough to prove $`(`$5$`)`$ at the associated primes of $`R/(a,b)^{n1}\overline{J}`$. In this case, however, the result is true because of our assumption that $`R_𝔭`$ has rational singularities for all codimension two prime ideals $`(`$see LT $`)`$.

###### Remark 6

As mentioned earlier, an alternative approach to the computation of the integral closure of an ideal $`I`$ is through the construction of the integral closure of its Rees algebra $`R[It]`$. If $`I=(a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)`$ then one can represent $`R[It]`$ as the quotient $`R[T_1,\mathrm{},T_n]/𝔔`$, where $`𝔔`$ is the kernel of the map that sends $`T_i`$ to $`a_it`$. If $`R[It]`$ is an affine domain over a field of characteristic zero and Jac denotes its Jacobian ideal, then the ring

$$\text{Hom}_{R[It]}(\text{Jac}^1,\text{Jac}^1)$$

is guaranteed to be larger than $`R[It]`$ if the ring is not already normal $`(`$see (xcompu, , Chapter 6)$`)`$. It also turns out that

$$\text{Hom}_{R[It]}(\text{Jac}^1,\text{Jac}^1)=\text{Hom}_{R[It]}((\text{Jac}^1)^1,(\text{Jac}^1)^1)=(\text{Jac}\text{Jac}^1)^1,$$

the latter being the inverse of the so called trace ideal of Jac. Finally, to get the equations for $`(\text{Jac}\text{Jac}^1)^1`$ one then uses again (xcompu, , Algorithm 6.2.1).

Naturally, this process can be repeated several times until the integral closure of $`R[It]`$ has been reached. The degree one component of the final output gives the desired integral closure of $`I`$.

###### Example 4

Let $`k`$ be a field of characteristic zero and let $`JR=k[x,y]`$ be the codimension two complete intersection

$$J=(x^3+y^6,xy^3y^5).$$

Using the methods outlined in Remark 6, it turns out that the integral closure of $`J`$ can be obtained in three steps. After the first step has been completed one obtains the ideal

$$J_1=(x^3+y^6,xy^3y^5,y^8);$$

after a second iteration one gets

$$J_2=(x^3+y^6,xy^3y^5,x^2y^2y^6,y^7);$$

finally, at the end of the last step, one has that the integral closure of $`J`$ is given by the ideal

$$J_3=\overline{J}=(xy^3y^5,y^6,x^3,x^2y^2).$$

Note that $`\overline{J}`$ is also a normal ideal.

For the records, despite the fact that the original setting for the problem is a polynomial ring in $`2`$ variables over a field of characteristic zero, overall we had to make use of additional 18 variables: quite a waste!

###### Remark 7

In the case of the integral closure of complete intersections, it has to be pointed out that some of the initial iterations of the process described in Remark 6 may be avoided by using the results of CP2 ; PU .

If the complete intersection $`J`$ is primary to the maximal ideal $`𝔪`$ of a Gorenstein ring $`R`$ and $`J𝔪^s`$ but $`J𝔪^{s+1}`$ then one has an increasing sequence of ideals $`I_k=J:𝔪^k`$ satisfying $`I_k^2=JI_k`$ for $`k=1,\mathrm{},s`$ if $`\text{dim}(R)3`$ or for $`k=1,\mathrm{}s1`$ if $`R`$ is a regular local ring and $`\text{dim}(R)=2`$. In particular this says that the $`I_k`$’s are contained in the integral closure of $`J`$. Hence, instead of computing the integral closure of $`R[Jt]`$ one may want to start directly from $`R[I_st]`$ $`(`$or $`R[I_{s1}t]`$ if $`R`$ is a regular local ring and $`\text{dim}(R)=2)`$.

If $`J`$ is not primary to the maximal ideal one may initially use instead the sequence of ideals $`I_k=J:(\sqrt{J})^{(k)}=J:(\sqrt{J})^k`$, provided that at each localization at the associated primes of $`J`$ the conditions in CP2 ; PU  are satisfied so that $`I_k^2=JI_k`$ for all $`k`$’s in the appropriate range.

In the specific case of the complete intersection $`J`$ of Example 4 one can easily compute $`I_1=J:𝔪`$ and $`I_2=J:𝔪^2`$ and check that $`J_1=I_1`$ and $`J_2=I_2`$. Hence, starting directly from a presentation of $`R[I_2t]`$ a single iteration of the process as in Remark 6 gives the integral closure of $`J`$.

###### Remark 8

In ES  D. Eisenbud and B. Sturmfels developed a nice theory about binomial ideals. A natural question that one can raise on this matter asks: Is the integral closure of a binomial ideal still a binomial ideal? Despite what Example 4 and similar other examples would suggest, the answer is in general negative. We give below an example in characteristic zero. We use the fact that an ideal of a polynomial ring over a field is binomial if and only if some $`(`$equivalently, every$`)`$ reduced Gröbner basis for the ideal consists of binomials $`(`$see (ES, , Corollary 1.2)$`)`$.

###### Example 5

Let $`R=k[x,y,z,w]`$ be a ring with characteristic zero and consider the ideal

$$I=(x^2xy,xy+y^2,z^2zw,zw+w^2).$$

It turns out that a primary decomposition for $`I`$ is given by

$$I=(xy,zw)(xy,z^2,zw,w^2)(zw,x^2,xy,y^2)(x,y^2,z,w^2).$$

Hence the integral closure of $`I`$ is nothing but

$`\overline{I}`$ $`=`$ $`(xy,zw)(xy,z^2,zw,w^2)(zw,x^2,xy,y^2)`$
$`=`$ $`(x^2xy,xy+y^2,z^2zw,zw+w^2,xzyzxw+yw).`$
It can be checked that these generators for $`\overline{I}`$ are a Gröbner basis and so it is not a binomial ideal. The last fact can be easily checked if one chooses the order $`x>z>y>w`$ and then shows that the $`S`$-resultant of each pair of the given generating set of $`\overline{I}`$ reduces to zero modulo that same generating set $`(`$Buchberger criterion$`)`$.

###### Remark 9

It has to be remarked that with the following linear change of variables

$$X=xyY=yZ=zwW=w$$

the ideal $`I`$ of Example 5 becomes the following monomial ideal

$$(X^2,YX,Z^2,WZ)$$

so that its integral closure is again a monomial ideal, namely

$$(X^2,YX,Z^2,WZ,XZ).$$

### Gorenstein ideals

We now address the normality for certain classes of perfect Gorenstein ideals.

###### Example 6

Let $`k`$ be a field of characteristic zero and $`Ik[x,y,z,w]`$ the ideal generated by the Pfaffians of the five by five skew-symmetric matrix

$$\phi =\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}0& x& y& z& w\\ x& 0& x& y& z\\ y& x& 0& x& y\\ z& y& x& 0& z\\ w& z& y& z& 0\end{array}\right).$$

One has that

$$I=(x^2y^2+xz,xyyz+xw,xzz^2+yw,xw,y^22xz)$$

is a perfect Gorenstein ideal of codimension three. One can show that

$$\sqrt{I}=(xz,zw,yw,y^22z^2),L=(y,x,z^2),$$

and that the conditions specified in part $`(`$b$`)`$ at the beginning of Section $`3`$ are satisfied. Thus, $`I`$ is an integrally closed ideal. As a consequence of Corollary 5 below, $`I`$ is also a normal ideal.

###### Theorem 4.2

Let $`R=k[x_1,\mathrm{},x_d]`$ be a polynomial ring in $`d`$ variables over a field $`k`$ of characteristic zero. Let $`IR`$ be a Gorenstein ideal defined by the Pfaffians of a $`n\times n`$ skew–symmetric matrix $`\phi `$ with linear entries. Suppose $`n=d+1`$ and that $`I`$ is a complete intersection on the punctured spectrum. If $`I`$ is integrally closed it is also normal.

###### Proof

$`I`$ is an ideal of analytic spread $`\mathrm{}=d`$, of reduction number $`d2`$. Its Rees algebra $`R[It]`$ is also Cohen–Macaulay and has a presentation

$$R[It]=R[T_1,\mathrm{},T_n]/,$$

with $`=(𝐓\phi ,f)`$, where $`f`$ is the equation of analytic dependence among the $`n`$ forms that generate $`I`$. $`(`$All of these facts can be traced to SUV .$`)`$

To show that $`I`$ is normal, we estimate the codimension of the non-normal locus of $`R[It]`$ and show that it is at least $`2`$. Since $`R[It]`$ is Cohen–Macaulay this will suffice to prove that $`I`$ is normal.

Let $`𝒩`$ be the ideal that defines the non-normal locus of $`R[It]`$. As $`I`$ is an integrally closed complete intersection on the punctured spectrum of $`R`$, we may assume that the ideal $`(𝐱)=(x_1,\mathrm{},x_d)`$ is contained in $`𝒩`$. We now look at the size of the Jacobian ideal modulo $`(𝐱)`$. $``$ is an ideal of height $`n1=d`$, and the corresponding $`(n+d)\times (n+1)`$ Jacobian matrix has the form

(

B(φ)
00
φ
fT1fTn
)

B(φ)
00
φ
fT1fTn
\left(\!\begin{tabular}[]{c}\parbox[t]{108.405pt}{\parbox[t]{64.32025pt}{
\framebox{$\begin{array}[]{ccc}&&\\
&B(\varphi)\\
&&\\
\end{array}$}
}\parbox[t]{28.90755pt}{$\begin{array}[]{ccc}&0&\\
&\vdots&\\
&0&\end{array}$} \\
\parbox[t]{64.32025pt}{\mbox{$\begin{array}[]{cccc}&&&\\
&&\ \varphi&\\
&&&\end{array}$}}\parbox[t]{28.90755pt}{
\framebox{$\begin{array}[]{c}\displaystyle\frac{\partial f}{\partial T_{1}}^{\ }\\
\vdots\\
\displaystyle\frac{\partial f}{\partial T_{n}}_{\ }\\
\end{array}$}
} }\end{tabular}\!\!\right)
where $`B(\phi )`$ is the $`(`$Jacobian dual$`)`$ matrix of the linear forms in the $`T_i`$’s such that $`𝐓\phi =𝐱B(\phi )`$. Note that $`B(\phi )`$ is a $`d\times n`$ matrix.

The Jacobian ideal contains the product of the minors of order $`d1`$ of $`B(\phi )`$ by the ideal generated by the partial derivatives of $`f`$. Since $`f`$ is an irreducible polynomial and $`k`$ has characteristic zero, the latter has height at least $`2`$. On the other hand, based on an argument from (Morey, , Proposition 2.4), one has that $`\text{height }I_{d1}(B(\phi ))2`$. Hence we have an ideal of forms in the variables $`T_i`$’s to add to the ideal $`(𝐱)`$; both are contained in $`𝒩`$ and from the previous calculations it follows that

$$\text{height }𝒩d+2=\text{height }+2,$$

as claimed.

###### Corollary 5

Let $`R=k[x_1,x_2,x_3,x_4]`$ be a polynomial ring in $`4`$ variables over a field $`k`$ of characteristic zero. Let $`IR`$ be a Gorenstein ideal defined by the Pfaffians of a five by five skew–symmetric matrix $`\phi `$ with linear entries. If $`I`$ is integrally closed it is also normal.

###### Proof

By Theorem 3.1, $`I`$ is a complete intersection on the punctured spectrum, hence Theorem 4.2 applies.

###### Example 7

The hypothesis that the entries of the matrix $`\phi `$ are linear forms is necessary. Let $`k`$ be a field of characteristic zero and $`Ik[x,y,z,w]`$ be the codimension three Gorenstein ideal $`I`$ generated by the Pfaffians of the five by five skew-symmetric matrix $`(`$see (xcompu, , Example 8.3.3)$`)`$

$$\phi =\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}0& x^2& y^2& z^2& w^2\\ x^2& 0& w^2& xy& z^2\\ y^2& w^2& 0& x^2& xy\\ z^2& xy& x^2& 0& y^2\\ w^2& z^2& xy& y^2& 0\end{array}\right),$$

where $`x,y,z,w`$ are variables. It can be checked that $`IL:L^2=\sqrt{I}`$ where $`L=I:\sqrt{I}`$. Hence $`I`$ is integrally closed. On the other hand, this ideal is not normal, a fact that can be shown as follows. Since $`I`$ is generated by five forms $`f_1,\mathrm{},f_5`$ of the same degree, the Rees algebra of $`I`$ decomposes as

$$R[It]=k[f_1,\mathrm{},f_5].$$

To prove that $`R[It]`$ is not normal it suffices to show that $`k[f_1,\mathrm{},f_5]`$ is not normal. But $`k[f_1,\mathrm{},f_5]`$ can be easily seen to be an hypersurface ring and an application of the Jacobian criterion shows that it is not normal.