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Seshadri constants and very ample divisors on algebraic surfaces

Brian Harbourne

Department of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-0323
email: bharbour@math.unl.edu
WEB: http://www.math.unl.edu/$``$bharbour/
April 3, 2001

This work benefitted from a National Science Foundation grant. Also, I thank Prof. Szemberg for his comments and for sending me his recent preprints. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification.  Primary 14C20, 14J60, 14N05. Secondary 14J26, 14H50. Key words and phrases.  Seshadri constant, algebraic surface, line bundles, linear systems, rational surface, fat points, nef, very ample divisor.
Abstract: A broadly applicable geometric approach for constructing nef divisors on blow ups of algebraic surfaces at $`n`$ general points is given; it works for all surfaces in all characteristics for any $`n`$. This construction is used to obtain substantial improvements for currently known lower bounds for $`n`$ point Seshadri constants. Remarks are included about a range of applications to classical problems involving linear systems on P2.

I. Introduction This paper presents a broadly applicable geometric approach to building nef divisors on surfaces. Our main application is to obtaining bounds on multipoint Seshadri constants for $`n`$ general points on surfaces $`X`$. What we find is that, for $`n`$ sufficiently large, all of the main results for $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$ hold for surfaces generally.

To begin, let $`X`$ be an algebraic surface (by which we will always mean a reduced, irreducible, normal projective variety of dimension 2, over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic). Let $`L`$ be a nef divisor on $`X`$, let $`l=L^2`$, and let $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_n`$ be distinct points of $`X`$. Seshadri constants were introduced in \[De\]; more generally, multiple point versions have been studied in \[Bau\], \[Bi\], \[Ku1\], \[Xu2\], \[S\] and \[ST\]. To recall, the multiple point Seshadri constant $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_n)`$ is defined to be the supremum of all rational numbers $`\epsilon `$ such that $`\pi ^{}L\epsilon (E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is a nef $`𝐐`$-divisor, where $`\pi :YX`$ is the morphism blowing up the points $`p_i`$, $`1in`$, and $`E_i`$ is the exceptional divisor corresponding to $`p_i`$. We will often be concerned with finding lower bounds for $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_n)`$ which hold on an open set in $`X^n`$. Thus, given a lower bound $`c`$, it will be convenient to write $`ϵ(L,n)c`$ to mean that $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_n)c`$ holds on an open set of $`n`$-tuples of points $`p_i`$ of $`X`$.

It is not hard to see that $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_n)\sqrt{l/n}`$ (see Section III), and, as remarked in \[Xu2\], it follows over $`𝐂`$ from \[EL\] that $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_n)1`$ for sufficiently general points $`p_i`$, if $`l>n`$. Another lower bound for $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_n)`$ for sufficiently general points $`p_i`$ over $`𝐂`$ follows from the main result of \[Ku1\], but (in dimension 2) this lower bound is never more than $`\sqrt{l/n}\sqrt{11/n}`$. Our results are of interest mainly when $`l<n`$: for any given very ample divisor $`L`$, our main result, Theorem I.1, obtains (in view of Proposition I.2) better bounds than $`\sqrt{l/n}\sqrt{11/n}`$ for almost all $`n`$ sufficiently large.

There are very few cases for which the value of $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_n)`$ is known for $`n`$ general or generic points $`p_i`$. One important case, which has seen a great deal of attention beginning with Nagata’s work on Hilbert’s 14th Problem, is when $`L`$ is very ample and $`l=1`$, which forces $`X`$ to be P2, but even here, $`ϵ(L,n)`$ is known only when $`n<9`$ (see Remark III.7) or when $`n`$ is a square. In fact, Nagata’s conjecture \[N1\], that (in different terminology) $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_n)=1/\sqrt{n}`$ should hold for $`n>9`$ generic points $`p_i`$ of P2 even when $`n`$ is not a square, is still open. (When $`n`$ is a square, it is easy to check that $`ϵ(L,n)1/\sqrt{n}\epsilon `$ holds for $`n`$ general points for any positive rational $`\epsilon `$; however, our generalization of this in Theorem I.1 to any surface seems to be both new and nontrivial.)

Some of the best results obtained so far for the case that $`l=1`$ and $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$ over $`𝐂`$ are due to Biran \[Bi\], who uses a powerful procedure for building nef divisors. Although ad hoc applications of this procedure can yield impressive results in particular cases (such as the calculation $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_{19})39/170`$ in section 5 of \[Bi\], whereas our Theorem I.1 gives only $`39/171`$), obtaining general results by this procedure seems to require carefully constructed values of $`n`$. For example, given positive integers $`a`$ and $`i`$, Theorem 2.1A of \[Bi\] gives bounds if $`n=a^2i^2\pm 2i`$, or if $`n=a^2i^2+i`$ and $`ai3`$. But in these cases there are certain positive integer solutions to $`r^2d^2n=1`$: for $`n=a^2i^2\pm 2i`$, take $`r=a^2i\pm 1`$ and $`d=a`$, and for $`n=a^2i^2+i`$, take $`r=2a^2i+1`$ and $`d=2a`$; either way Biran’s bound is $`\sqrt{1/n}\sqrt{11/r^2}`$. Applying Proposition I.2(b), we recover as a special case of Theorem I.1 these same bounds in those cases with $`rn`$, and we obtain even better bounds via Proposition I.3 when $`n=a^2i^2\pm 2i`$ and $`a=1`$ (and hence $`n+1`$ is a square). For the cases when $`i=1`$ and either $`n=a^2i^22i`$ or $`n=a^2i^2+i`$, we have $`r>n`$ so Proposition I.2(b) does not apply, but (except in the case that $`n=a^2+1`$ and either the characteristic is 2 or $`a`$ is a power of 2) Proposition I.3 recovers Biran’s bound via a refined application of our underlying approach; see Section IV. Similarly, if $`n=a^2i^2i`$, which \[Bi\] does not treat (except in special cases when $`n`$ can also be written in the form $`n=a^2i^2\pm 2i^{}`$), we can take $`d=2a`$ and $`r=2a^2i1`$ and again obtain the bound $`\sqrt{1/n}\sqrt{11/r^2}`$, as long as $`i>2`$. (For bounds when $`i2`$, and more generally when $`n+2`$ or $`n+1`$ is a square, see Proposition I.3.)

Another result over $`𝐂`$ for $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$ and $`l=1`$ that should be mentioned is that $`ϵ(L,n)1/\sqrt{n+1}`$ for $`n10`$ general points \[ST\]. Apart from cases which follow from \[H2\] (which this paper generalizes) and from those of \[Bi\] just mentioned, this seems to have been the best estimate known up to now. However, Theorem I.1 with Proposition I.2(c) (or Proposition I.3 if $`n\pm 1`$ is a square) is better in all cases. Moreover, our approach applies to all surfaces in all characteristics. \[Very recently, by a very elegant argument for $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$ over $`𝐂`$, Szemberg \[S\] obtained a bound of the form $`ϵ(L,n)(1/\sqrt{n})\sqrt{11/(an)}`$, where $`a`$ currently can be as large as about 5. But for $`n`$ sufficiently large, the bound of Theorem I.1 is, by Proposition I.2(b)(iii), better except for a small fraction of cases. Nevertheless, there are some special values of $`n`$ of particular interest, including certain small values of $`n`$ and when $`n=s^21`$ where $`s1`$ is a power of 2, for which the bound of \[S\] is the best one we know.\]

In short, Seshadri constants are difficult to compute and in general remain unknown, but they are closely connected to classical problems involving linear systems and thus are of substantial interest. In this paper, using more broadly applicable geometric methods than have been typical of work on this problem, we give a characteristic free approach to estimating Seshadri constants that nonetheless gives comprehensive improvements to currently known lower bounds.

In preparation for stating our main result, let $`l`$ and $`n`$ be positive integers and define the sets

$$S_1(n,l)=\{\frac{r}{nd}|\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}rn,1d,\frac{r}{d}\sqrt{nl}\}$$

and

$$S_2(n,l)=\{\frac{dl}{r}|\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}rn,1d,\frac{r}{d}\sqrt{nl}\}$$

of integer ratios. Now define $`S(n,l)=S_1(n,l)S_2(n,l)`$ and $`\epsilon _{n,l}=\text{max}(S(n,l))`$. With a view to the important special case that $`L`$ is a line in $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$, we will write $`\epsilon _n`$ for $`\epsilon _{n,1}`$.

We now have the following result (proved in Section III as Theorem III.1):

Theorem I.1: Let $`l=L^2`$, where $`L`$ is a very ample divisor on an algebraic surface $`X`$. Then $`\sqrt{l/n}ϵ(L,n)`$, and in addition, we have $`ϵ(L,n)\epsilon _{n,l}`$ unless $`ln`$ and $`nl`$ is a square, in which case $`\sqrt{l/n}=\epsilon _{n,l}`$ and $`ϵ(L,n)\sqrt{l/n}\epsilon `$ for every positive rational $`\epsilon `$.

(The somewhat awkward statement in case $`nl`$ is a square is related to there possibly being no open set of points such that $`ϵ(L,n)=\epsilon _{n,l}`$ in that case.)

Note that $`\epsilon _{n,l}`$ is just the maximum element in the finite set

$$\{\frac{d\sqrt{nl}}{dn}|\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}d\sqrt{\frac{n}{l}}\}\left\{\frac{1}{\sqrt{\frac{n}{l}}}\right\}\{\frac{dl}{d\sqrt{nl}}|\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}d\sqrt{\frac{n}{l}}\}.$$

Thus for any given $`n`$ it is not hard to compute $`\epsilon _{n,l}`$ exactly, even though it is not easy to give an explicit formula. As an alternative, we give some comparisons and in addition determine $`\epsilon _{n,l}`$ explicitly in some cases (the proof of Proposition I.2 is in Section III):

Proposition I.2: Let $`l`$, $`s`$ and $`n`$ be positive integers.

(a)If $`ln`$, then $`\epsilon _{n,l}=1`$.

(b)Say $`l<n`$, let $`d`$ and $`rn`$ be positive integers and put $`\delta =r^2nld^2`$.

(i)If $`nl`$ is a square, then $`\epsilon _{n,l}=\sqrt{l/n}`$.

(ii)We have

$$\epsilon _{n,l}\sqrt{\frac{l}{n}}\sqrt{1\frac{\delta }{r^2}}\text{ if }\delta 0\text{ and }\epsilon _{n,l}\sqrt{\frac{l}{n}}\sqrt{1+\frac{\delta }{nld^2}}\text{ if }\delta 0\text{,}$$

with equality if $`\delta =\pm 1`$.

(iii)Moreover,

$$\epsilon _{n,l}>\sqrt{\frac{l}{n}}\sqrt{1\frac{1}{n}}$$
$`()`$
holds for at least half of the values of $`l`$ from $`(n1)/2`$ to $`n1`$ as long as $`n>2`$. Alternatively, given any positive integer $`a`$ and $`s>2`$, the fraction of the number of values of $`n`$ in the range $`s^2ln<(s+1)^2l`$ for which

$$\epsilon _{n,l}>\sqrt{\frac{l}{n}}\sqrt{1\frac{1}{an}}$$
$`()`$
fails to hold is at most $`((2a^2a+8)l+3)/(l(2s+1))`$ if $`a>2`$, $`(14l+3)/(l(2s+1))`$ if $`a=2`$, and $`(4l+2)/(l(2s+1))`$ if $`a=1`$, and thus goes to 0 as $`s`$ increases.

(c)If $`n\pm 1`$ is not a square, we have

$$\epsilon _n>\frac{1}{\sqrt{n+1}}>\sqrt{\frac{1}{n}}\sqrt{1\frac{1}{n}}.$$

For more explicit estimates of $`\epsilon _{n,l}`$ and $`\epsilon _n`$, see Corollary III.2 and Corollary III.5. Also, for a given $`n`$, we note that the first statement of Proposition I.2(b)(iii) significantly understates the number of $`l`$ from 1 to $`n`$ for which $`()`$ holds, which often is $`3n/4`$ or more; see Remark III.8.

Regarding Proposition I.2(c), it is especially difficult to improve on previously known bounds when $`n`$ is close to a square. If $`n\pm 1`$ or $`n+2`$ is a square, we can improve on $`\epsilon _n`$ using a refinement of our basic approach. We obtain the following result, proved in Section IV, which in all cases is better than $`1/\sqrt{n+1}`$, and recovers Biran’s bound if either $`n+2`$ is a square or (in certain cases) if $`n1`$ is a square, and improves on Biran’s bound if $`n+1`$ is a square:

Proposition I.3: Let $`n`$ be a positive integer, with $`L`$ a line in $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$; we have:

$``$if $`9n+2`$ is a square then $`ϵ(L,n)\sqrt{\frac{1}{n}}\sqrt{1\frac{1}{(n+1)^2}};`$

$``$if $`9n+1`$ is a square, then $`ϵ(L,n)\sqrt{\frac{1}{n}}\sqrt{1\frac{n1}{n(\sqrt{n+1}+1)^2}},`$ and (unless $`\sqrt{n+1}1`$ is a power of 2 or the characteristic is 2) $`ϵ(L,n)>\sqrt{\frac{1}{n}}\sqrt{1\frac{1}{(\sqrt{n+1}1)n}}`$;

$``$if $`9n1`$ is a square, then $`ϵ(L,n)\sqrt{\frac{1}{n}}\sqrt{1\frac{n1}{(n+\sqrt{n1})^2}},`$ and (unless $`n1`$ is a power of 4 or the characteristic is 2) $`ϵ(L,n)\sqrt{\frac{1}{n}}\sqrt{1\frac{1}{(2n1)^2}}.`$

We include two corollaries that may be of interest. For any $`nl`$ not a square, there are infinitely many solutions $`(r,d)`$ to $`r^2d^2nl=1`$. Unfortunately, if $`r`$ is too big we cannot apply Proposition I.2(b)(ii) to obtain a bound. By the next result (see Section III for the proof), such solutions need not entirely go wasted:

Corollary I.4: Let $`L`$ be a very ample divisor on a surface $`X`$ with $`l=L^2`$ and consider positive integers $`n`$, $`r`$ and $`d=ab`$. If $`r^2nld^2=1`$ and $`a>b\sqrt{l/n}`$, then $`\pi ^{}L(bl/r)(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_{a^2n})`$ is a nef $`𝐐`$-divisor, where $`\pi :YX`$ is the birational morphism obtained by blowing up $`a^2n`$ general points $`p_i`$, $`E_i`$ being the exceptional divisor corresponding to $`p_i`$; in particular, we have $`ϵ(L,a^2n)bl/r`$.

The preceding result is suggestive of the procedure of \[Bi\] on $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$ over $`𝐂`$, which, for example, can easily be used to show that $`at\pi ^{}Lm(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_{a^2n})`$ is nef if $`t\pi ^{}Lm(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is. Similarly, the next corollary (proved in Section III) generalizes two additional facts known on $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$ over $`𝐂`$: that the divisor $`H=t\pi ^{}L(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is ample if $`H^2>0`$ (see \[Xu1\] or \[Ku2\]) and $`H=t\pi ^{}L2(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef if $`H^20`$ (see Theorem 2.1.B of \[Bi\]).

Corollary I.5: Let $`L`$ be a very ample divisor on a surface $`X`$ with $`l=L^2`$ and consider positive integers $`n>l`$ and $`d\sqrt{n/l}`$. Let $`\pi :YX`$ be the birational morphism obtained by blowing up $`n`$ general points $`p_i`$, $`E_i`$ being the corresponding exceptional divisor. Then $`H_r=r(\pi ^{}L)dl(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is a nef divisor for all integers $`r>d\sqrt{nl}`$, and an ample $`𝐐`$-divisor for all rationals $`r>d\sqrt{nl}`$.

Our approach uses an explicit construction in Section II of nef divisors on the blow up $`Y`$ of $`X`$ at the points $`p_i`$, with the points taken in special position. As a consequence of these nef divisors, we obtain various bounds in Section III. The construction of nef divisors given in Section II can be refined to sometimes obtain better bounds. Since doing this introduces some complications, we segregate this material to Section IV. In Section V we discuss additional applications of the existence of these nef divisors to various classical problems involving linear systems on P2. Analogous remarks could be made for surfaces more generally, but complications (such as irregular surfaces, and failure of vanishing theorems to hold in certain circumstances in positive characteristics) arise that would require special treatment. Thus we leave such remarks for the reader to work out in cases of his or her own interest.

II. Nef Divisors on Blow ups The foundation for our results is a method for constructing nef divisors generalizing what is done in \[H2\]. To state our basic lemma, let $`X_0`$ be an algebraic surface. We will call a sequence $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_n`$ of points a proximity sequence if $`p_1X_0`$ is smooth, $`p_2`$ is a point of the exceptional divisor of the blow up $`\pi _1:X_1X_0`$ at $`p_1`$, and, for $`2<i<n`$, $`\pi _{i1}:X_{i1}X_{i2}`$ is the blow up of $`X_{i2}`$ at $`p_{i1}`$ and $`p_i`$ is a point of the exceptional divisor of $`\pi _{i1}`$, but not a point of the proper transform of the exceptional divisor of $`\pi _{i2}`$. Denote the composition $`\pi _n\mathrm{}\pi _1`$ by $`\pi :X_nX_0`$ and denote by $`E_i`$ the scheme theoretic fiber $`(\pi _n\mathrm{}\pi _{i1})^1(p_i)`$. Thus $`E_i`$ is a divisor on $`X_n`$, the total transform of $`p_i`$, and, for each $`1i<n`$, $`[E_iE_{i+1}]`$ is the class of a reduced irreducible divisor.

Lemma II.1: Let $`\pi :YX`$ be the morphism obtained by blowing up general points $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_n`$ of an algebraic surface $`X`$, and let $`E_i`$ be the exceptional divisor corresponding to each point $`p_i`$. Let $`\pi ^{}:Y^{}X`$ be the morphism corresponding to a proximity sequence $`p_1^{},\mathrm{},p_n^{}`$ for $`X`$, with $`E_i^{}`$ being the exceptional divisor on $`Y^{}`$ corresponding to $`p_i^{}`$. Suppose we are given a divisor $`L`$ on $`X`$ with $`l=L^2`$, and integers $`1d`$, $`1rn`$, and $`m_1\mathrm{}m_r0`$ such that $`[d(\pi ^{}L)m_1E_1^{}\mathrm{}m_rE_r^{}]`$ is the class of an irreducible effective divisor $`C`$. Then $`a_0d(\pi ^{}L)a_1E_1\mathrm{}a_nE_n`$ is a nef $`𝐐`$-divisor on $`Y`$ for any rational numbers $`a_i`$ satisfying:

$``$$`a_1a_2\mathrm{}a_n0`$;

$``$$`a_0d^2la_1m_1+\mathrm{}+a_rm_r`$;

$``$$`a_0^2d^2l>a_1^2+\mathrm{}+a_n^2`$;

$``$$`(m_1+\mathrm{}+m_i)a_0a_1+\mathrm{}+a_i`$ for $`1ir`$; and

$``$$`(m_1+\mathrm{}+m_r)a_0a_1+\mathrm{}+a_n`$.

Proof: The point is to show $`N=a_0d(\pi ^{}L)a_1E_1^{}\mathrm{}a_nE_n^{}`$ is nef on $`Y^{}`$. Since by assumption $`N^2>0`$, the result then follows since being nef and of positive self-intersection is an open condition for flat families of line bundles. But the divisor class $`[N]`$ is nef on $`Y^{}`$ because it is a nonnegative $`𝐐`$-linear combination of classes of irreducible effective divisors, each of which $`N`$ meets nonnegatively. In particular, the last two bulleted hypotheses guarantee that $`N`$ is the sum of $`a_0C`$ with various nonnegative multiples of $`E_iE_{i+1}`$ for $`1i<n`$ and $`E_n`$. The first two bulleted hypotheses guarantee that $`N`$ meets each summand nonnegatively. (It follows that $`a_0^2d^2la_1^2+\mathrm{}+a_n^2`$, i.e., $`N^20`$, is a consequence of the other hypotheses, and that $`N^2>0`$ is automatic unless: $`a_0d^2l=a_1m_1+\mathrm{}+a_rm_r`$, and $`((m_1+\mathrm{}+m_i)a_0(a_1+\mathrm{}+a_i))(a_ia_{i+1})=0`$ for $`1i<r`$, and $`(a_ra_i)a_i=0`$ for $`i>r`$, and $`(m_1+\mathrm{}+m_r)a_0=a_1+\mathrm{}+a_n`$.) $`\mathrm{}`$

We now apply the preceding lemma in case $`L`$ is a very ample divisor on $`X`$.

Lemma II.2: Let $`\pi :YX`$ be the morphism blowing up general points $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_n`$ of an algebraic surface $`X`$, let $`E_1,\mathrm{},E_n`$ be the exceptional divisors corresponding to the points $`p_i`$, let $`L`$ be a very ample divisor on $`X`$ and put $`l=L^2`$ and $`L^{}=\pi ^{}L`$. Given positive integers $`rn`$ and $`d`$, and nonnegative rational numbers (not all 0) $`a_0a_1\mathrm{}a_n0`$ such that $`a_0d^2la_1+\mathrm{}+a_r`$, $`a_0^2d^2l>a_1^2+\mathrm{}+a_n^2`$ and $`ra_0a_1+\mathrm{}+a_n`$, then $`(a_0d)L^{}(a_1E_1+\mathrm{}+a_nE_n)`$ is a nef $`𝐐`$-divisor on $`Y`$.

Proof: Since $`L`$ is very ample, $`|dL|`$ has an irreducible member $`C^{}`$ passing through and smooth at some smooth point $`p_1^{}X`$. Take as our proximity sequence points of $`C^{}`$ infinitely near to $`p_1^{}`$; i.e., blow up $`p_1^{}`$ and take $`p_2^{}`$ to be the point of the proper transform of $`C^{}`$ infinitely near to $`p_1^{}`$. Similarly define $`p_i^{}`$ for all $`ir`$. Then extend to a proximity sequence $`p_1^{},\mathrm{},p_n^{}`$ such that $`p_{r+1}^{}`$ is not on the proper transform of $`C^{}`$. Blowing up the points of the sequence gives the morphism $`\pi ^{}:Y^{}X`$, and $`[d(\pi ^{}L)E_1^{}\mathrm{}E_r^{}]`$ is the class of the proper transform of $`C^{}`$, which is irreducible. It is now easy to check that the hypotheses of Lemma II.1 apply (take $`m_i=1`$ for all $`i`$), giving the result.$`\mathrm{}`$

One application of Lemma II.2 is to provide nef divisors $`F`$ which can be employed to test for effectivity: given a divisor $`H`$ on $`X`$ and integers $`b_i`$ (we may as well assume $`b_1\mathrm{}b_n0`$), if $`F(\pi ^{}Hb_1E_1\mathrm{}b_nE_n)<0`$ for some nef $`F`$, then $`|\pi ^{}Hb_1E_1\mathrm{}b_nE_n|`$ is empty. Given $`\pi ^{}Hb_1E_1\mathrm{}b_nE_n`$, the optimal nef test divisor $`F`$ provided by Lemma II.2 can be found by linear programming. (Keep in mind that we can always normalize so that $`a_0=1`$, and clearly one need consider only finitely many $`r`$ and $`d`$.)

In order to avoid linear programming, the following corollary obtains some special cases of particular interest.

Corollary II.3: Given $`X`$, $`Y`$, $`l`$, $`n`$ and $`L^{}`$ as in Lemma II.2, let $`d`$ and $`rn`$ be positive integers. Then we have the following cases.

(a)If $`r^2>nd^2l`$, then $`rL^{}dl(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef.

(b)If $`r^2<nd^2l`$, then $`ndL^{}r(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef.

(c)If $`r^2=nd^2l`$, then $`tL^{}(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef for all rationals $`t>\sqrt{n/l}`$.

Proof: Apply Lemma II.2 for various values of the $`a_i`$. For (a), take $`a_0=r/d`$ and $`a_1=\mathrm{}=a_n=ld`$. For (b), take $`a_0=n`$ and $`a_i=r`$, $`i>0`$. For (c), take $`a_0>n/r`$ and $`a_i=1`$, $`i>0`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

There are cases when one may want to construct nonuniform nef divisors. Here are some examples of such.

Corollary II.4: Given $`X`$, $`Y`$, $`l`$, $`n`$ and $`L^{}`$ as in Lemma II.2, let $`d`$ and $`rn`$ be positive integers. Then we have the following cases.

(a)If $`d^2l>r`$, then $`dL^{}(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_r)`$ is nef.

(b)If $`d^2lr`$, then $`d^{}L^{}(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_{ld^2})`$ is a nef $`𝐐`$-divisor for all rational $`d^{}>d`$, and, for each integer $`1j<d^2l`$,

$$d^{}L^{}(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_j)\frac{(d^2lj)}{(rj)}(E_{j+1}+\mathrm{}+E_\lambda +(\lambda \lambda )E_\lambda )$$

is a nef $`𝐐`$-divisor, where $`\lambda =\text{min}\{r+(rd^2l)(rj)/(d^2lj),n\}`$ and $`d^{}d`$ is any rational such that $`d^{}>d`$ if $`\lambda =\lambda n`$.

Proof: We apply Lemma II.2. For (a), take $`a_i=1`$ for $`0ir`$ and $`a_i=0`$ for $`i>r`$. For the first part of (b), take $`a_0=d^{}/d`$ and $`a_i=1`$ for $`0<id^2l`$ and $`a_i=0`$ for $`i>d^2l`$. For the rest, the idea is to choose $`a_i`$ such that $`a_i=1`$ for $`0ij`$, with the $`a_i`$ for $`j<ir`$ being equal and as large as possible subject to $`a_0d^2la_1+\mathrm{}+a_r`$ (hence $`a_i=(d^2lj)/(rj)`$ for $`j<ir`$), and finally for as many as possible of the remaining $`a_i`$ also to equal $`(d^2lj)/(rj)`$, subject to $`ra_0a_1+\mathrm{}+a_n`$. Thus we take $`a_i=(d^2lj)/(rj)`$ for $`r<i\lambda `$, $`a_i=0`$ for $`i>\lambda `$ and, if $`(\lambda \lambda )>0`$, we take $`a_\lambda =(\lambda \lambda )(d^2lj)/(rj)`$ (in which case $`ra_0a_1+\mathrm{}+a_n`$ will be an equality). The requirement on $`d^{}`$ ensures positive self-intersection. $`\mathrm{}`$

III. Seshadri Constants of Very Ample Divisors For a very ample divisor $`L`$ on a surface $`X`$ with $`L^2=l`$ and any $`n`$ distinct points $`p_i`$ on $`X`$, it is easy to see that $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_n)\sqrt{l/n}`$: just note that for any $`\epsilon `$ bigger than $`\sqrt{l/n}`$ we can find a rational $`\delta <\sqrt{l/n}`$ such that $`F_\epsilon F_\delta <0`$, where $`F_t=L^{}t(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$. But $`F_\delta ^2>0`$, so for appropriate integers $`N`$ sufficiently large, $`|NF_\delta |`$ is nonempty, hence $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_n)\epsilon `$.

Lower bounds are more difficult. By applying Corollary II.3, we establish our main lower bound.

Theorem III.1: Let $`l=L^2`$, where $`L`$ is a very ample divisor on an algebraic surface $`X`$. Then $`\sqrt{l/n}ϵ(L,n)`$, and in addition, we have $`ϵ(L,n)\epsilon _{n,l}`$ unless $`ln`$ and $`nl`$ is a square, in which case $`\sqrt{l/n}=\epsilon _{n,l}`$ and $`ϵ(L,n)\sqrt{l/n}\epsilon `$ for every positive rational $`\epsilon `$.

Proof: We noted $`\sqrt{l/n}ϵ(L,n)`$ above. If $`l>n`$, then $`\epsilon _{n,l}=1`$ by Proposition I.2, but $`L^{}E_1\mathrm{}E_n`$ is nef by Corollary II.3(b) (take $`r=n`$ and $`d=1`$), so $`ϵ(L,n)1`$. If $`l<n`$ but $`nl`$ is not a square, then $`ϵ(L,n)\epsilon _{n,l}`$ follows from Corollary II.3, parts (a) and (b). Finally, if $`ln`$ and $`nl`$ is a square, then $`\sqrt{l/n}=\epsilon _{n,l}`$ follows from Proposition I.2, and $`ϵ(L,n)\sqrt{l/n}\epsilon `$ holds for every positive rational $`\epsilon `$ by Corollary II.3(c).$`\mathrm{}`$

Although one needs to check only finitely many values of $`r`$ and $`d`$ to compute $`\epsilon _{n,l}`$, it is nonetheless useful to have more explicit lower bounds. For that purpose, given positive integers $`n`$ and $`l`$, let $`d^{}=\sqrt{n/l}`$, $`d_{}=\sqrt{n/l}`$, $`r^{}=d_{}\sqrt{nl}`$, and $`r_{}=d_{}\sqrt{nl}`$.

Corollary III.2: Let $`l`$ and $`n`$ be positive integers. Then $`\epsilon _{n,l}1/d^{}`$, and, if $`ln`$, then also $`\epsilon _{n,l}\text{max}(r_{}/(nd_{}),d_{}l/r^{})`$.

Proof: For the first inequality, use $`r=n`$ and $`d=d^{}`$, and check that then $`1rn`$, $`1d`$, and $`r/d\sqrt{nl}`$, so in this case $`r/(nd)S_1`$. For $`r_{}/(nd_{})`$ in the second inequality, use $`r=r_{}`$ and $`d=d_{}`$, and again check that $`1rn`$, $`1d`$ (because $`ln`$), and $`r/d\sqrt{nl}`$, so $`r/(nd)S_1`$. For $`d_{}l/r^{}`$, use $`r=r^{}`$ and $`d=d_{}`$, and check that $`1rn`$, $`1d`$, and $`r/d\sqrt{nl}`$, so $`dl/rS_2`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

Remark III.3: The values of $`r`$ and $`d`$ obtained using $`d^{}`$, $`d_{}`$, $`r^{}`$, and $`r_{}`$ are not always optimal. For example, if $`n=33`$ and $`l=1`$, then $`\epsilon _{n,l}=4/23S_2(n,l)`$ comes from $`r=23`$ and $`d=4`$, but $`1/d^{}=1/6`$, $`r_{}/(nd_{})=28/(335)`$, $`d_{}/r^{}=5/29`$ are all less than $`4/23`$.

Remark III.4: If $`L`$ is a line in $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$, then $`l=1`$. If we denote $`\sqrt{n}`$ by $`s`$ and $`(ns^2)/2`$ by $`t`$, then either $`n=s^2+2t`$ or $`n=s^2+2t+1`$, where $`0ts`$ (with $`t<s`$ in the latter case). With respect to $`s`$ and $`t`$ in the case that $`n`$ is not a perfect square, it is not hard to check that $`r^{}=s^2+t`$, $`r_{}=s^2+t1`$, $`d^{}=s+1`$ and $`d_{}=s`$ if $`n=s^2+2t`$, while $`r^{}=s^2+t+1`$, $`r_{}=s^2+t`$, $`d^{}=s+1`$ and $`d_{}=s`$ if $`n=s^2+2t+1`$. If $`n=s^2`$, then $`r^{}=r_{}=s^2`$ and $`d^{}=d_{}=s`$. (For a more symmetrical treatment, under some restrictions, of cases (a) and (b) of the following corollary, see Example IV.7.)

Corollary III.5: Let $`1s`$ and $`0ts`$ be integers.

(a)If $`n=s^2+2t`$, then $`\epsilon _ns/(s^2+t)`$.

(b)If $`n=s^2+2t+1`$ and $`t<s`$, then $`\epsilon _n(s^2+t)/(s(s^2+2t+1))`$

(c)If $`s>1`$ and $`n=s^2+2t+1`$ and $`0<t<(\sqrt{2}1)(s1)`$, then $`\epsilon _n(s(s1)+t)/((s1)(s^2+2t+1))>(s^2+t)/(s(s^2+2t+1))`$.

(d)If $`s>1`$ and $`n=s^2+2t+1`$ and $`(\sqrt{2}1)(s1)<t<\sqrt{1.25s^2s}s/2`$, then $`\epsilon _n(s1)/(s(s1)+t)>(s^2+t)/(s(s^2+2t+1))`$.

Proof: For (a) and (b), apply Corollary III.2, using the expressions for $`r^{}`$, $`r_{}`$, $`d^{}`$ and $`d_{}`$ in Remark III.4. For (c) and (d), apply Corollary II.3(b) and (a), resp., with $`r=s(s1)+t`$ and $`d=s1`$.$`\mathrm{}`$

Remark III.6: For $`L`$ a line in $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$ over $`𝐂`$, \[ST\] proves for $`n10`$ that $`ϵ(L,n)1/\sqrt{n+1}`$. It is easy to check that Corollary III.5 gives a better result in all cases except when $`n\pm 1`$ is a square. For improvements in these cases, see Proposition I.3.

Remark III.7: The lower bounds given in Corollary III.5(a,b) actually equal both $`ϵ(L,n)`$ and $`\epsilon _n`$ if $`1n6`$. For $`n=7`$, $`ϵ(L,7)=3/8`$ (since $`F=8L^{}3E_1\mathrm{}3E_7`$ is known to be nef while $`E=3L^{}2E_1E_2\mathrm{}E_7`$ is effective with $`FE=0`$), and $`ϵ(L,8)=6/17`$ for $`n=8`$ (since $`F=17L^{}6E_1\mathrm{}6E_8`$ is nef while $`E=6L^{}3E_12E_2\mathrm{}2E_8`$ is effective with $`FE=0`$), whereas in fact $`\epsilon _7=5/14`$ and $`\epsilon _8=1/3`$.

Proof of Proposition I.2: Part (c) is easy to check using Corollary III.5(a,b). For part (a), note that we have $`\epsilon _{n,l}1/d^{}`$ by Corollary III.2, but $`d^{}=1`$ for $`ln`$. On the other hand, by definition either $`\epsilon _{n,l}=r/(nd)`$ for some positive $`r`$ and $`d`$ with $`rn`$ (in which case clearly $`\epsilon _{n,l}1`$), or $`\epsilon _{n,l}=dl/r`$ for some positive $`r`$ and $`d`$ with $`rn`$ and $`r^2d^2nl`$ (hence $`dl/r=d^2nl/(rdn)r^2/(rdn)1`$).

Consider part (b). Given $`r`$ and $`d`$ with $`\delta =r^2d^2nl`$, it is easy to check that $`dl/r=\sqrt{l/n}\sqrt{1\delta /r^2}`$ if $`0\delta `$, while $`r/(nd)=\sqrt{l/n}\sqrt{1+\delta /(d^2nl)}`$ if $`\delta 0`$. The inequalities in (b)(ii) now follow by definition of $`\epsilon _{n,l}`$. Moreover, this makes it clear that $`\epsilon _{n,l}\sqrt{l/n}`$, so if $`nl=q^2`$ for some $`q`$, we can take $`r=q`$ and $`d=1`$ to see $`\epsilon _{n,l}r/(nd)=\sqrt{l/n}`$. This proves part (b)(i). To prove the statement about equality in (b)(ii), first assume $`r^2nld^2=1`$ with $`rn`$. It suffices to show $`\epsilon _{n,l}=dl/r`$.

For any positive integer $`t\sqrt{n/l}`$, denote $`t\sqrt{nl}`$ by $`r_t`$; e.g., we have $`r=r_d`$. Since $`r^2nld^2=1`$, we know that $`nl`$ is not a perfect square, so $`t\sqrt{nl}=r_t1`$. Now, $`\epsilon _{n,l}`$ is just the maximum in $`\{(r_t1)/(tn)|1t\sqrt{n/l}\}\{1/t|t=\sqrt{n/l}\}\{tl/r_t|1t\sqrt{n/l}\}`$. We will show that $`r_t=rt/d`$. Assuming this, it follows that $`dl/r=tl/(rt/d)tl/r_t`$, so $`dl/r`$ is the maximum of $`\{tl/r_t|1t\sqrt{n/l}\}`$. We must also show $`dl/r`$ is as large as every element of $`\{(r_t1)/(tn)|1t\sqrt{n/l}\}\{1/\sqrt{n/l}\}`$. But from $`r^2nld^2=1`$ we derive $`r^2/(d^2l^2)=n/l+1/(d^2l^2)`$. If $`dl/r<1/\sqrt{n/l}`$, then $`\sqrt{n/l}<r/(dl)`$, and there must be an integer $`k`$ with $`\sqrt{n/l}k<r/(dl)`$, hence $`r^2/(d^2l^2)1/(d^2l^2)=n/lk^2<r^2/(dl)^2`$, and so $`r^21k^2d^2l^2<r^2`$, which is absurd. As for $`\{(r_t1)/(tn)|1t\sqrt{n/l}\}`$, we have $`rt=r_td\rho `$ where $`0\rho <d`$. By solving for $`r_t`$ and substituting, we see $`(r_t1)/(nt)dl/r`$ if and only if $`t=t(r^2nld^2)(d\rho )r`$. But $`(d\rho )rr>d\sqrt{nl}\sqrt{nl}\sqrt{n/l}t`$, as required.

We are left with checking $`r_t=rt/d`$. Since $`r=d\sqrt{nl}`$, we see $`rtdt\sqrt{nl}`$, so $`r_t=rt/d`$ follows if we show there is no integer $`k`$ with $`t\sqrt{nl}<k<rt/d`$ (equivalently, that there is no $`k`$ with $`t^2d^2nl<k^2d^2<r^2t^2`$), but such a $`k`$ would imply $`t^2d^2nl<(rt1)^2`$. Thus it suffices to show that $`rtdt\sqrt{nl}1`$ for $`1t\sqrt{n/l}`$. But $`t(rd\sqrt{nl})=t(r^2nld^2)/(r+d\sqrt{nl})<t/(2d\sqrt{nl})\sqrt{n/l}/(2d\sqrt{nl})=1/(2dl)1`$.

Suppose now that $`r^2nld^2=1`$, in which case we must show $`\epsilon _{n,l}=r/(nd)`$. This time $`r_t=t\sqrt{nl}`$, $`t\sqrt{nl}=r_t+1`$ and we will show $`r_t=rt/d`$. It follows that $`r/(nd)=rt/(ndt)r_t/(nt)`$. We also have $`r/(nd)1/\sqrt{n/l}`$: if not then $`\sqrt{n/l}<nd/r`$, but $`n/l=(dn/r)^2n/(r^2l)`$, so there is an integer $`k`$ with $`(dn/r)^2n/(r^2l)=n/lk^2<(dn/r)^2`$, hence $`(dn)^2n/lk^2r^2<(dn)^2`$, but this is not sufficient distance between squares unless $`d=n=l=1`$, which contradicts $`r^2d^2nl=1`$. Now compare $`r/(nd)`$ with $`tl/(r_t+1)`$. We have $`rt=r_td+\rho `$ where $`0\rho <d`$, and as before $`tl/(r_t+1)r/(nd)`$ if and only if $`t(d\rho )r`$. But $`(d\rho )rr>d\sqrt{nl}1=dl\sqrt{n/l}1`$, and $`dl\sqrt{n/l}1t`$ unless $`t=\sqrt{n/l}`$ and $`dl=1`$, but in that case it is easy to check that $`t=r1`$.

We are left with checking $`r_t=rt/d`$. Since $`r=d\sqrt{nl}`$, we see $`rtdt\sqrt{nl}`$, so $`r_t=rt/d`$ follows if $`dt\sqrt{nl}rt1`$ for $`1t\sqrt{n/l}`$. But $`t(d\sqrt{nl}r)=t(nld^2r^2)/(d\sqrt{nl}+r)<t/(d\sqrt{nl})\sqrt{n/l}/(dl\sqrt{n/l})1/(dl)1`$.

Finally, consider part (b)(iii). There exist $`r`$ and $`d`$ such that either $`\epsilon _{n,l}=dl/r`$ with $`0\delta =r^2d^2nl`$ or $`\epsilon _{n,l}=r/(nd)`$ with $`\delta 0`$. If $`0\delta `$, it’s enough to check that $`dl/r>\sqrt{l/n}\sqrt{11/n}`$, but as above $`dl/r=\sqrt{l/n}\sqrt{1\delta /r^2}`$ so it suffices to check that $`\delta /r^2<1/n`$; i.e., that $`\delta <r^2/n`$. If $`\delta 0`$, the argument is the same except $`\epsilon _{n,l}=r/(nd)=\sqrt{l/n}\sqrt{1+\delta /(d^2nl)}`$.

So, to bound the number of $`l`$ for which $`()`$ in (b)(iii) holds, we check whether $`d^2l<\delta <r^2/n`$ holds when $`d=1`$ and $`r`$ is either $`r=\sqrt{nl}`$ or $`r=\sqrt{nl}`$. But $`d^2l<\delta <r^2/n`$ holds if either $`\sqrt{nl}<\sqrt{nl}/\sqrt{11/n}`$ or $`\sqrt{nl}>\sqrt{nl}\sqrt{11/n}`$, which is equivalent to having the interval $`I_l=(\sqrt{nl}\sqrt{11/n},\sqrt{nl}/\sqrt{11/n})`$ contain an integer. It is not too hard to check that the union $`I_{(n1)/2}\mathrm{}I_{n1}`$ contains the interval $`(\sqrt{n(n1)/2},n1)`$, and thus the number of values of $`l`$ between $`(n1)/2`$ and $`n1`$ for which $`\epsilon _{n,l}>\sqrt{l/n}(\sqrt{11/n})`$ holds is always at least $`(n1)\sqrt{n(n1)/2}1`$. This is at least half of the number of $`l`$ in the range $`(n1)/2l<n`$, as long as $`n45`$. An explicit check for $`3n44`$ shows that $`()`$ still holds for at least half of the number of $`l`$ in the range $`(n1)/2l<n`$.

For $`()`$, we apply Dirichlet’s theorem from elementary number theory, which says there are integers $`0<r<n+1`$ and $`d1`$ such that $`|r/\sqrt{nl}d|1/(n+1)`$. Given such an $`r`$ and $`d`$, we have $`|rd\sqrt{nl}|\sqrt{nl}/(n+1)`$, hence $`|\delta |=|r^2nld^2|(r+d\sqrt{nl})\sqrt{nl}/(n+1)`$. Thus, if $`\delta <0`$, we have $`|\delta |/(nld^2)<\sqrt{nl}(r+d\sqrt{nl})/(n^2ld^2)<\sqrt{nl}(2d\sqrt{nl})/(n^2ld^2)=2/(nd)`$, and if $`\delta >0`$, we have $`\delta /r^2<\sqrt{nl}(r+d\sqrt{nl})/(nr^2)<\sqrt{nl}(2r)/(nr^2)<(r/d)(2r)/(nr^2)=2/(nd)`$.

For some $`r=r^{}`$ and $`d=d^{}`$ and $`\delta =r^2nld^2`$, we know that $`\epsilon _{n,l}=\sqrt{l/n}\sqrt{1x}`$, where $`x=|\delta |/(nld^2)`$ if $`\delta <0`$ and $`x=\delta /r^2`$ if $`\delta >0`$, and thus either way $`x<2/(nd^{})`$. It follows that if, for the given $`n`$, $`|r/\sqrt{nl}d|1/(n+1)`$ holds for no $`r`$ and $`d`$ with $`0<r<n+1`$ and $`1d<2a`$, then $`x<2/(nd^{})1/(an)`$, and hence $`()`$ holds for this $`n`$. So to count those $`n`$ in the range $`s^2ln<(s+1)^2l`$ for which $`()`$ holds, it is enough to count how often $`|r/\sqrt{nl}d|1/(n+1)`$ holds for $`1d<2a`$ and $`0<r<n+1`$.

But for any given $`d`$, $`|r/\sqrt{nl}d|1/(n+1)`$ holds for some $`r`$ only if the interval $`(d\sqrt{nl}\sqrt{l/n},d\sqrt{nl}+\sqrt{l/n})`$ contains an integer, i.e., only if $`[d^2nl2dl+1,d^2nl+2dl]`$ contains a square. Now, the interval $`[d^2s^2l^2,d^2(s+1)^2l^2]`$ contains $`dl+1`$ squares, and we are interested in counting for how many $`n[s^2l,(s+1)^2l)`$ does the interval $`[d^2nl2dl+1,d^2nl+2dl]`$ contain one of these squares. Since $`s>2`$, no interval $`[d^2nl2dl+1,d^2nl+2dl]`$ can contain two squares, and for $`d>3`$, the intervals are disjoint and $`d^2(s+1)^2l^2`$ is in no interval, so at most $`dl`$ of the intervals contain squares. For $`2d3`$, consecutive intervals overlap but no point lies in three intervals (and $`d^2(s+1)^2l^2`$ is in no interval if $`d=3`$ and only in the last interval if $`d=2`$), so there are at most $`2dl`$ intervals that contain squares when $`d=3`$ and at most $`2dl+1`$ when $`d=2`$. Similarly, for $`d=1`$ at most four intervals overlap at a single point and $`d^2(s+1)^2l^2`$ is in two intervals, so there are at most $`4dl+2`$ intervals that contain squares. (These are of course typically overestimates since some squares may lie in no intervals.) Summing over $`1d<2a`$, we find that of the $`n`$ in the range $`s^2ln<(s+1)^2l`$ there are at most $`(4l+2+4l+1+6l)+(4l+5l+\mathrm{}+(2a1)l)`$ (i.e., $`(2a^2a+8)l+3`$ if $`a>2`$, $`14l+3`$ if $`a=2`$, and $`4l+2`$ if $`a=1`$) values of $`n`$ whose corresponding interval contains a square. $`\mathrm{}`$

Remark III.8: Our estimate that $`()`$ in Proposition I.2(b) holds for at least half of $`(n1)/2l<n`$ understates how often $`()`$ holds. One reason for this is that the intervals $`I_l`$ in the proof overlap, and thus the same integer can lie in more than one interval, but our estimate counts only some of those integers, and at most once each. Also, our estimate is based on a check only for $`d=1`$. We can partially account for cases with $`d>1`$ by again applying Dirichlet’s theorem, as in the proof of Proposition I.2(b)(iii). As we saw there, $`2dl<\delta <2r^2/(nd)`$ holds for any $`r`$ and $`d`$ such that $`|r/\sqrt{nl}d|1/(n+1)`$ with $`0<r<n+1`$ and $`d1`$. Therefore, $`d^2l<\delta <r^2/n`$ also holds if in addition $`d>1`$. Thus, as long as $`|r/\sqrt{nl}1|>1/(n+1)`$ holds for $`r=\sqrt{nl}`$ and $`r=\sqrt{nl}`$ (which we can rewrite as $`(n+2)\sqrt{nl}/(n+1)1<\sqrt{nl}<n\sqrt{nl}/(n+1)`$), we see that the solution to $`|r/\sqrt{nl}d|1/(n+1)`$ guaranteed by Dirichlet’s theorem must have $`d>1`$ and hence $`()`$ holds. I.e., if the interval $`J_l=((n+2)\sqrt{nl}/(n+1)1,n\sqrt{nl}/(n+1))`$ contains an integer, then $`\epsilon _{n,l}>\sqrt{l/n}\sqrt{11/n}`$.

One can check that the intervals $`J_l`$ are nonempty as long as $`l`$ is less than about $`n/4`$, and that these intervals and the $`I_l`$ are all disjoint as long as $`l`$ is less than about $`n/2`$, and that the union of the $`I_l`$ for $`l`$ more than about $`n/2`$ is about $`(n/\sqrt{2},n)`$. Thus the union of all of the intervals $`I_l`$ and $`J_l`$ has measure about $`0.61n`$, so it is reasonable (but not guaranteed) to expect that at least $`61\%`$ of the values of $`l`$ from 1 to $`n`$ should give $`\epsilon _{n,l}>\sqrt{l/n}\sqrt{11/n}`$. To take into account overlaps among the $`I_l`$ for $`l>n/2`$, we might instead want to consider the sum of the lengths of the intervals. This is about $`3n/4`$, and so it is reasonable to expect that typically at least $`75\%`$ of the values of $`l`$ from 1 to $`n`$ result in $`\epsilon _{n,l}>\sqrt{l/n}\sqrt{11/n}`$. Explicit computations for various $`n`$ show, in fact, that percentages around $`80\%`$ are common. For $`n`$ from 15 to 200, the smallest percentage ($`63\%`$) occurs for $`n=19`$ and the largest ($`87.6\%`$) for $`n=97`$. For some larger $`n`$, we have $`85\%`$ for $`n=313`$, $`75\%`$ for $`n=314`$, $`78\%`$ for $`n=3079`$ and $`80.8\%`$ for $`n=3080`$.

We now prove Corollary I.4 and Corollary I.5.

Proof of Corollary I.4: This follows from Corollary II.3(a), if we check that $`r^2>b^2(a^2n)l`$ and $`ra^2n`$. But $`r^2=1+d^2nl>d^2nl=(ab)^2nl`$, and $`r^21=d^2nl=a^2nb^2l=a^2n^2b^2l/n<a^4n^2`$, hence $`r^2a^4n^2`$, as required. $`\mathrm{}`$

Proof of Corollary I.5: For the first part it is clearly enough to consider the case that $`r=d\sqrt{nl}`$, and apply Corollary II.3(a,c). Similarly, for any rational $`r>d\sqrt{nl}`$, $`H_t`$ is nef for any rational $`r>t>d\sqrt{nl}`$ by Corollary II.3(a,c), hence $`H_r=(rt)L^{}+H_t`$ is ample (since $`L^{}`$ meets every curve positively except for $`E_1,\mathrm{},E_n`$, which $`H_t`$ meets positively). $`\mathrm{}`$

IV. Refinements The bound $`ϵ(L,n)\epsilon _{n,l}`$ given in Theorem I.1 is limited by the requirement in the definition of $`\epsilon _{n,l}`$ that $`rn`$. To get stronger results we need to relax this requirement. Our definition of $`\epsilon _{n,l}`$ is based on Corollary II.3, which in turn is based on constructing nef divisors by blowing up a smooth point of an irreducible curve linearly equivalent to a multiple of a very ample divisor. Considering singular points allows us, in effect, to use values of $`r`$ that can be bigger than $`n`$.

For example, say $`m`$ is a positive integer, $`p_1^{}`$ is a smooth point of an algebraic surface $`X`$, and $`X_{p_1^{}}`$ is the blowing up of $`X`$ at $`p_1^{}`$, with $`E`$ being the corresponding exceptional divisor. If $`L`$ is very ample on $`X`$, then $`tL^{}mE=(tm)L^{}+m(L^{}E)`$ is very ample on $`X_{p_1^{}}`$ for any $`t>m>0`$, where $`L^{}`$ is the pullback of $`L`$ to $`X_{p_1^{}}`$. Thus $`|tL^{}mE|`$ contains an element $`C_1`$ which is reduced and irreducible and is smooth and transverse to $`E`$ at some point $`p_2^{}E`$. Given the morphism $`\pi ^{}:Y^{}X`$ corresponding to the proximity sequence $`p_1^{},\mathrm{},p_n^{}`$ with $`p_1^{}`$ and $`p_2^{}`$ as above and each $`p_i^{}`$, $`ir`$, being infinitely near points on proper transforms of $`C_1`$, we find that $`[d(\pi ^{}L)mE_1^{}E_2^{}\mathrm{}E_n^{}]`$ is the class of an irreducible divisor (in fact, the proper transform of $`C_1`$) on $`Y^{}`$. Define the function $`f(d)=\text{max}(1,d1)`$; applying Lemma II.1 in the same manner as in Corollary II.3 we obtain:

Corollary IV.1: Given $`X`$, $`Y`$, $`l`$, $`n`$ and $`L^{}`$ as in Lemma II.2, let $`1d`$, $`1mf(d)`$ and $`1rn`$ be integers. Then we have the following cases.

(a)If $`(r+m1)^2>nd^2l`$, then $`(r+m1)L^{}dl(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef.

(b)If $`(r+m1)^2<nd^2l`$, then $`ndL^{}(r+m1)(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef.

(c)If $`(r+m1)^2=nd^2l`$, then $`tL^{}(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is a nef $`𝐐`$-divisor for all rationals $`t>\sqrt{n/l}`$.

If we now define the sets

$$S_1^{}(n,l)=\{\frac{r+m1}{nd}|\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}rn,\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}d,\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}mf(d),\frac{r+m1}{d}\sqrt{nl}\},$$

$$S_2^{}(n,l)=\{\frac{dl}{r+m1}|\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}rn,\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}d,\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}mf(d),\frac{r+m1}{d}\sqrt{nl}\},$$

and $`S^{}(n,l)=S_1^{}(n,l)S_2^{}(n,l)`$, we can take $`\epsilon _{n,l}^{}=\text{max}(S^{}(n,l))`$. Note that since we can rewrite $`S_1^{}`$ and $`S_2^{}`$ as $`S_1^{}(n,l)=\{r/(nd)|1rn+f(d)1,1d,r/d\sqrt{nl}\}`$ and $`S_2^{}(n,l)=\{dl/r|1rn+f(d)1,1d,r/d\sqrt{nl}\}`$, this effectively allows us to use $`r`$ bigger than $`n`$. With essentially the same proof as for Theorem III.1, we now have:

Theorem IV.2: Let $`l=L^2`$, where $`L`$ is a very ample divisor on an algebraic surface $`X`$. Then $`\sqrt{l/n}ϵ(L,n)`$, and in addition, we have $`ϵ(L,n)\epsilon _{n,l}^{}`$ unless $`ln`$ and $`nl`$ is a square, in which case $`\sqrt{l/n}=\epsilon _{n,l}^{}`$ and $`ϵ(L,n)\sqrt{l/n}\epsilon `$ for every positive rational $`\epsilon `$.

Example IV.3: This actually is only a minor improvement, but it is an improvement. For example, if $`n+2`$ is a square, then we can write $`n=s^2+2s1`$ for some $`sn`$. If $`s2`$, then apply Corollary IV.1(a) with $`r=n`$, $`m=2`$ and $`d=s+1`$ to see that $`(r+m1)L^{}d(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef, and hence $`ϵ(L,n)\epsilon _{n,1}^{}d/(r+m1)=(s+1)/(s^2+2s)=\sqrt{1/n}\sqrt{11/(n+1)^2}`$. This is better than what we got before (cf. Corollary III.5), and in fact is precisely the bound obtained in \[Bi\] for $`n=a^2i^22i`$ for $`i=1`$.

We can get a further effective increase in $`r`$ by considering additional, infinitely near singularities. For example, we have:

Corollary IV.4: Say $`L`$ is a line in $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$, and consider positive integers $`d4`$, $`n5`$, $`1r^{}n+d1`$. Then, for a blowing up of $`n`$ general points of P2, $`r^{}L^{}d(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef if $`r^2>nd^2`$, and $`ndL^{}r^{}(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef if $`r^2<nd^2`$.

Proof: If $`r^{}n+d2`$, then we can take $`rn`$ and $`md1`$ but still have $`r+m1=r^{}`$, so the result follows by Corollary IV.1. Thus we may assume that $`r^{}=n+d1`$. The idea is to choose a proximity sequence $`p_1^{},\mathrm{},p_n^{}`$ such that $`[dL^{}(d2)E_1^{}2E_2^{}2E_3^{}E_4^{}\mathrm{}E_n^{}]`$ is the class of an irreducible effective divisor. Given this the result follows from Lemma II.1.

To justify our claim about $`[dL^{}(d2)E_1^{}2E_2^{}2E_3^{}E_4^{}\mathrm{}E_n^{}]`$, we first pick $`p_1^{},\mathrm{},p_4^{}`$, such that $`p_2^{}`$ is on the exceptional divisor of the blow up of $`p_1^{}`$, $`p_3^{}`$ is a general point on the exceptional divisor of the blow up of $`p_2^{}`$ (hence not on the proper transforms of the line through $`p_1^{}`$ and $`p_2^{}`$ nor of the exceptional divisor of $`p_1^{}`$), and $`p_4^{}`$ is a general point on the exceptional divisor of the blow up of $`p_3^{}`$. The claim is now that $`[dL^{}(d2)E_1^{}2E_2^{}2E_3^{}E_4^{}]`$ is the class of a reduced irreducible divisor $`C_4`$ meeting $`E_4`$ transversely. To see this, note that this class corresponds under a quadratic Cremona transformation centered at $`p_1^{},p_2^{},p_3^{}`$ to the class $`[(d2)L^{\prime \prime }(d4)E_1^{\prime \prime }E_4^{\prime \prime }]`$, where the $`E_i^{\prime \prime }`$ are obtained by blowing up four points with the first three as before and the fourth point being a general point on the line through $`p_1^{}`$ and $`p_2^{}`$, but not infinitely near to any of the first three. But clearly for any $`d4`$ there is a reduced irreducible curve of degree $`d2`$ with a $`(d4)`$-multiple point passing simply through some other general point. To finish picking our proximity sequence, let $`p_5^{},\mathrm{},p_n^{}`$ be the points of the proper transforms of $`C_4`$ infinitely near to $`p_4^{}`$.$`\mathrm{}`$

Example IV.5: As an application of the previous result, let $`L`$ be a line in P2. For $`8n=s^2+2s`$ (thus, $`n+1`$ is a square), we have $`ϵ(L,n)(s^2+3s+1)/(s(s+2)^2)=\sqrt{1/n}\sqrt{1(n1)/(n(\sqrt{n+1}+1)^2)}`$, and if $`10n=s^2+1`$ (i.e., $`n1`$ is a square), we have $`ϵ(L,n)(s+1)/(s^2+s+1))=\sqrt{1/n}\sqrt{1(n1)/(n+\sqrt{n1})^2}`$. To see this, apply Corollary IV.4: for $`n=s^2+2s`$, take $`r=n`$, $`m=d2=s`$ and $`r^{}=r+m+1`$ and note $`r^2<nd^2`$, and for $`n=s^2+1`$, take $`r=n`$, $`m=d2=s1`$ and $`r^{}=r+m+1`$ and note $`r^2>nd^2`$.

We can also obtain additional improvements in our bounds in special cases, based on the following result.

Lemma IV.6: Let $`d=abc`$, where $`a,b,c`$ are positive integers with $`c<a`$ such that $`c`$ and $`a`$ are relatively prime and the characteristic does not divide $`c`$. If $`r^{}a^2b^2c`$ and $`na^2b^2+(r^{}a^2b^2c)`$ are integers, then, for a blowing up of $`n`$ general points of P2 with $`L\text{P}\text{2}`$ a line, $`r^{}L^{}d(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef if $`r^2>nd^2`$, and $`ndL^{}r^{}(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef if $`r^2<nd^2`$.

Proof: Let $`r=a^2b^2+(r^{}a^2b^2c)`$. The idea is to show there is a proximity sequence $`p_1^{},\mathrm{},p_n^{}`$ such that $`dL^{}c(E_1^{}+\mathrm{}+E_{a^2b^2}^{})(E_{a^2b^2+1}^{}+\mathrm{}+E_r^{})`$ is linearly equivalent to an irreducible divisor, then apply Lemma II.1: if $`r^2>nd^2`$, take $`a_0=r^{}/d`$ and $`a_1=\mathrm{}=a_n=d`$, while if $`r^2<nd^2`$, take $`a_0=n`$ and $`a_1=\mathrm{}=a_n=r^{}`$.

Now we construct our irreducible divisor $`dL^{}c(E_1^{}+\mathrm{}+E_{a^2b^2}^{})(E_{a^2b^2+1}^{}+\mathrm{}+E_r^{})`$. We will be very explicit. Choose homogeneous coordinates $`x,y,z`$ on P2, let $`G=xz^{cb1}y^{cb}`$, let $`F=x^{ab}+z^{(ac)b}G`$. Note that $`G`$ and $`F`$ meet only at $`p_1^{}=[0:0:1]`$ (with order of contact therefore $`ab^2c`$), and both $`F`$ and $`G`$ are smooth at $`p_1^{}`$. It follows that $`F`$ and $`G`$ are reduced and irreducible, and $`p_1^{}`$ is a base point of the pencil $`F^c,G^a`$. This pencil gives a rational map to P1. By successively blowing up points, we can remove the indeterminacies of this map. It turns out that the points one must blow up to do so give a proximity sequence $`p_1^{},\mathrm{},p_{a^2b^2}^{}`$. On the blow up the rational map is a morphism, and the class of the fiber of the morphism corresponding to $`F^c`$ is just $`[cC]=[abcL^{}cE_1^{}\mathrm{}cE_{a^2b^2}^{}]`$, where $`C`$ is the proper transform of the curve defined by $`F`$. The fiber corresponding to $`G^a`$ is $`aD+(ac)N_1+2(ac)N_2+\mathrm{}+ab^2c(ac)N_{ab^2c}+(ab^2c(ac)c)N_{ab^2c+1}+(ab^2c(ac)2c)N_{ab^2c+2}+\mathrm{}+cN_{a^2b^21}`$ (call this divisor $`A`$ for short) where $`D`$ is the proper transform of the curve defined by $`G`$, and $`N_i`$ is the effective divisor whose class is $`[E_i^{}E_{i+1}^{}]`$. Thus $`A`$ and $`cC`$ move in a base point free pencil defining a morphism to P1. The divisor $`E_{a^2b^2}^{}`$ is a multisection of this morphism, since it meets each fiber $`c`$ times. By Bertini’s Theorem (see Lemma II.6 of \[H1\]), the general member is either reduced and irreducible or every member is a sum of $`c`$ elements of $`|C|`$. But the latter would imply that $`A`$ is a sum of $`c`$ members of $`|C|`$; $`A`$ is connected so $`A`$ would have to be $`c`$ times a single element of $`|C|`$, which is impossible since $`D`$ is a component of $`A`$ of multiplicity $`a`$, and $`a`$ and $`c`$ are relatively prime. Moreover, the trace of the fibers of the morphism on $`E_{a^2b^2}^{}`$ is a linear system spanned by two points of multiplicity $`c`$ (since $`A`$ and $`cC`$ both meet $`E_{a^2b^2}^{}`$ at single points with multiplicity $`c`$). Since the characteristic does not divide $`c`$, some general fiber $`H`$ is reduced and irreducible and meets $`E_{a^2b^2}^{}`$ transversely. Now take $`p_{a^2b^2+1}^{}`$ to be one of these transverse points of intersection; this uniquely determines the rest of the proximity sequence through $`p_r^{}`$, with respect to which $`[dL^{}c(E_1^{}+\mathrm{}+E_{a^2b^2}^{})(E_{a^2b^2+1}^{}+\mathrm{}+E_r^{})]`$ is the class of the proper transform of $`H`$, which is irreducible. The rest of the proximity sequence can be chosen arbitrarily, as long as we don’t blow up any more points of $`H`$ and keep $`E_i^{}E_{i+1}^{}`$ irreducible.$`\mathrm{}`$

Example IV.7: Let $`n=s^2+j`$, where $`s`$ and $`j`$ are positive integers. If we assume $`s`$ is not a power of 2 and that the characteristic is not 2, then we may take $`c=2`$, $`a`$ to be any odd prime factor of $`s`$, $`b=s/a`$, $`d=abc=2s`$ and $`r^{}=ca^2b^2+i`$, where $`i`$ is an integer $`0ij`$. We find $`\delta =r^2nd^2=a^2b^2c(2icj)+i^2`$. This satisfies the hypotheses of Lemma IV.6, so either $`r^{}L^{}d(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ or $`ndL^{}r^{}(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef, depending on the sign of $`\delta `$. If we take $`i=j`$, it follows that $`r^{}L^{}d(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef and hence that $`ϵ(L,n)d/r^{}=\sqrt{1/n}\sqrt{1i^2/(2s^2+i)^2}=\sqrt{1/n}\sqrt{1i^2/(2ni)^2}`$. When $`i=1`$ (and hence $`n1`$ is a square), this is the bound given in \[Bi\] over $`𝐂`$ (but with no restriction on $`s`$), but this remains a very good bound as long as $`i`$ is not too big. Similarly, if we take $`i=j12s1`$, then $`ndL^{}r^{}(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef and $`ϵ(L,n)r^{}/(nd)=\sqrt{1/n}\sqrt{1(4s^2i^2)/(4ns^2)}`$. This bound is especially good when $`i`$ is near $`2s`$. For example, if $`i=2s1`$ (and hence $`n+1`$ is a square) we have $`ϵ(L,n)\sqrt{1/n}\sqrt{1(4s1)/(4ns^2)}>\sqrt{1/n}\sqrt{1(4s)/(4ns^2)}=\sqrt{1/n}\sqrt{11/(n(\sqrt{n+1}1))}`$.

Proof of Proposition I.3: The claims of Proposition I.3 are proved by Example IV.3, Example IV.5 and Example IV.7. $`\mathrm{}`$

V. Applications Our results in Section II have numerous applications to questions of effectivity, regularity, base point freeness, ampleness and very ampleness for linear systems on P2.

In this section we will always let $`L`$ be a line in $`X=\text{P}\text{2}`$ and take $`\pi :YX`$ to be the blow up of $`X`$ at $`n`$ general points $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_n`$. Let $`E_i`$, $`1\mathrm{}n`$, be the corresponding exceptional divisors and let $`L^{}=\pi ^{}L`$. Given $`m>0`$, let $`F_t=tL^{}m(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$. We can ask:

(a)What is the least $`t`$ such that $`|F_t|`$ is nonempty?

(b)What is the least $`t`$ such that $`F_t`$ is ample?

(c)What is the least $`t`$ such that $`F_t`$ is regular (i.e., $`h^1(Y,O_Y(F_t))=0`$)?

(d)What is the least $`t`$ such that $`|F_t|`$ is base point free?

(e)What is the least $`t`$ such that $`F_t`$ is very ample?

For the rest of this section, $`F_t`$ will be as above.

V.1. Effectivity Here we consider question (a); i.e., what is the least $`t`$ such that $`F_t`$ is (linearly equivalent to) an effective divisor?

Corollary V.1.1: If $`F_t`$ is effective, then $`tmn\epsilon _n`$.

Proof: By semicontinuity, $`F_t`$ remains effective under specialization of the points, but $`N=L^{}\epsilon _n(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is nef for some choice of the points, hence $`F_tN0`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

In terms of simplicity, computability and being characteristic free, in addition to its being a very good bound in an absolute sense, this bound seems to be the best, overall, now known, at least for uniform multiplicities. Of course, for $`D_t=tL^{}m_1E_1\mathrm{}m_nE_n`$ to be effective, it is true that $`t(m_1+\mathrm{}+m_n)\epsilon _n`$, but better bounds can sometimes be found. For example, if $`D_t=tL^{}2m(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_7)m(E_8+\mathrm{}+E_{15})`$ is effective, then Corollary II.4(b) (with $`d=3`$, $`j=7`$, $`r=11`$ and $`n=15`$) gives $`t6m`$, whereas the fact that $`N`$ in the proof of Corollary V.1.1 is nef gives only $`t22\epsilon _nm=5.5m`$. In some cases of nonuniform multiplicities, reduction by Cremona transformations can even give sharp bounds (see \[H3\]).

Even in the uniform case, there are special cases where better bounds are known, such as the calculation $`ϵ(L,p_1,\mathrm{},p_{19})39/170`$ in \[Bi\] or the examples in Section IV. However, methods which bound effectivity by testing against nef or ample divisors can at best say $`t>m\sqrt{n}`$ if $`F_t`$ is effective. Here are some examples of special situations where better bounds are known:

(a)Given a positive integer $`r`$ and $`n=4^r`$ in characteristic 0, it follows from \[Ev\] that $`F_t`$ is effective if and only if $`(t+1)(t+2)>nm(m+1)`$ (for $`m`$ sufficiently large, this is just $`tm\sqrt{n}+(\sqrt{n}2)/2`$).

(b)In characteristic 0 when $`m12`$ and $`n>9`$, \[CM\] also proves $`F_t`$ is effective if and only if $`(t+1)(t+2)>nm(m+1)`$.

(c)The algorithmic bound given in \[R1\] gives very good bounds, typically better than $`m\sqrt{n}`$, as long as $`m`$ is not too big compared with $`n`$; however, for $`m`$ sufficiently large, the bound in Corollary V.1.1 is better (see \[H2\]).

(d)The best overall bounds in characteristic 0 seem to be those of \[HR\]. Although they are asymptotically about the same as those given here in the sense that they do not seem to lead to better bounds on Seshadri constants, they do typically give better bounds on effectivity of $`F_t`$ for any given $`m`$. In fact, along with \[Ev\], \[HR\] gives the only bounds currently known which are sharp in certain cases in which $`m`$ and $`n`$ can simultaneously (but not independently) be arbitrarily large.

V.2. Ampleness and Regularity Here we consider questions (b) and (c); i.e., what is the least $`t`$ such that $`F_t`$ is ample, or such that $`F_t`$ is regular?

Section II already gives a bound for (b): if $`F_c`$ is nef, then $`F_t`$ is ample for all $`t>c`$. (This is because $`L^{}`$ meets all curves positively except for $`E_i`$, $`in`$, but $`F_c`$ meets each $`E_i`$ positively.) Consequently we have:

Corollary V.2.1: If $`d>m/\epsilon _n`$, then $`dL^{}(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$ is an ample $`𝐐`$-divisor.

Now we consider question (c). As was done in \[Xu2\], duality and the usual vanishing theorems can be used to convert bounds on nefness or ampleness into bounds on regularity. This approach gives part (b) of the next result. (Since \[N2\] completely solves the regularity problem for $`n9`$, we need only consider $`n>9`$.)

Corollary V.2.2: Let $`F_t=tL^{}m(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$, as usual, and recall $`d^{}=\sqrt{n}`$. Assume $`n>9`$.

(a)If $`tmd^{}+(d^{}3)/2`$, then $`F_t`$ is regular. If $`n`$ is a square and $`m>(d^{}2)/4`$, then the converse is true (i.e., the bound is sharp).

(b)If $`t(m+1)/\epsilon _n3`$ but $`n`$ is not a square, then $`F_t`$ is regular.

Proof: Part (a) follows from Lemma 5.3 of \[HHF\]. For part (b) let $`H_{t+3}=F_tK_Y`$; i.e., $`H_{t+3}=(t+3)L^{}(m+1)(E_1+\mathrm{}+E_n)`$. Then $`H_{t+3}`$ is nef and big (i.e., $`H_{t+3}^2>0`$) by Corollary II.3 for $`t+3(m+1)/\epsilon _n`$, hence Ramanujam vanishing (see \[Ra\], or, in positive characteristic, Theorem 1.6 of \[T\]) implies $`H_{t+3}=K_YF_t`$ is regular, so by duality $`K_Y(K_YF_t)`$ is regular. $`\mathrm{}`$

The bounds given by this corollary seem to be the best general bounds now known, but in special cases better ones are known. For example, if $`n>9`$ is a square but $`m`$ is not too big, the bound in Corollary V.2.2(a) is known not to be optimal; in characteristic 0, \[Ev\] gives an optimal bound for all $`m`$ if $`n`$ is a power of 4. If $`m`$ is not too big compared with $`n`$, the algorithmic bounds in \[R2\], although they are hard to compute, are often the best available (but for $`m`$ sufficiently large, the bounds given here are better; see \[H3\]). In \[HR\], bounds are given in characteristic 0 which are better than and sometimes harder to compute but asymptotically about the same as those of Corollary V.2.2(b). The bounds of \[HR\] are, however, sharp for certain values of $`m`$ and $`n`$ which can simultaneously (but not independently) be arbitrarily large. Other bounds have also been given. Those of \[Gi\], \[Hi\] and \[Ca\] are on the order of $`m\sqrt{2n}`$, while those given here are on the order of $`m\sqrt{n}`$. Similarly, Corollary V.2.2 is better than the bound of \[Bal\] if $`m`$ is large enough, and better than \[Xu2\] (Theorem 3) if $`n`$ is large enough. See \[H3\] for a discussion and some comparisons.

V.3. Freeness and Very Ampleness We now consider the last two questions, what is the least $`t`$ such that $`|F_t|`$ is base point free, and what is the least $`t`$ such that $`F_t`$ is very ample? The results of Section V.2 have an immediate application here. Indeed, it is well known that $`F_t`$ is base point free as long as $`F_{t1}`$ is regular, and very ample as long as $`F_{t1}`$ is free and regular. (This follows from the fact that the ideal $`I_Z`$ of the fat point subscheme $`Z=m(p_1+\mathrm{}+p_n)`$ is generated in degrees $`t\sigma `$ \[DGM\], where $`\sigma `$ can be defined as one more than the least $`t`$ such that $`F_t`$ is regular.) Thus, if $`F_t`$ is regular for all $`tN`$ for some $`N`$, then $`|F_t|`$ has no base points for $`tN+1`$ and is very ample for $`tN+2`$.

In certain cases, one can do better. For example, \[HHF\] shows that when $`n>9`$ is an even square and $`m>(\sqrt{n}2)/4`$, then $`F_t`$ is both regular for all $`tm\sqrt{n}+(\sqrt{n}2)/2`$ and that $`I_Z`$ is generated in degrees at most $`m\sqrt{n}+(\sqrt{n}2)/2`$. Thus $`F_t`$ is also base point free for all $`tm\sqrt{n}+(\sqrt{n}2)/2`$, and very ample for all $`tm\sqrt{n}+\sqrt{n}/2`$. For additional (but characteristic 0) examples, when $`n`$ is not a square but both $`n`$ and $`m`$ can be large, see \[HR\].

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# Thermalization in Yang-Mills Classical Mechanics

We use quartic oscillators system with two degrees of freedom to model Yang-Mills classical mechanics. This simple model explains qualitatively many features reported in lattice calculation of $`(3+1)`$ \- dimensional classical Yang-Mills system. The largest Lyapunov exponent ($`\lambda `$) and the thermalization time were numerically evaluated. We also show, in our model, that $`\lambda `$ scales with 4th root of energy density. Here thermalization is due to relaxation phenomena associated with the color degrees of freedom. From the physical picture of thermalization, we speculate that the system with coherent fields (flux tubes) formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions can relax by chaos and the estimated thermalization time can be smaller than $`1fm/c`$.

PACS Nos : 12.38.Aw, 05.45.-a
Keywords : Yang-Mills classical mechanics, quartic oscillators, thermalization, chaos, maximum Lyapunov exponent. Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is a Yang-Mills (YM) theory, nonlinear and hence exhibits chaos . This property is used to understand the confinement as well as deconfinement problems in QCD. Savvidy  extensively studied chaos in a homogeneous $`SU(2)`$ Yang-Mills system and speculated that it might be related to the confinement problem. Recently, Müller et al.  studied the classical YM system in $`(3+1)`$ \- dimension on a lattice and showed that it exhibits deterministic chaos. They related YM chaos to the thermalization of gluons in the deconfined state, which may be formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions (RHICs). They evaluated the maximum Lyapunov exponent, $`\lambda `$, and found that it scales with energy per plaquette and estimated the thermalization time of QGP formed in RHICs. But their analysis involves heavy numerical computations. It was also not clear why $`\lambda `$ linearly depends on energy per plaquette. In the light of their results, it is interesting to reanalyse the earlier work on Yang-Mills classical mechanics (YMCM), studied by Savvidy.

In this letter we study this problem using a very simple model, quartic oscillators (QO), which is related to YMCM of $`SU(2)`$ under certain limit. The Lyapunov exponent (LE) of QO was studied by Joy and Sabir  and it’s statistical mechanics and thermodynamics was studied by us . Here we find that maximum LE, $`\lambda `$, scales with 4th root of energy density, which can be seen both by a dimensional argument as well as numerically and thermalization time is estimated. This is similar to the result of Müller et al., but obtained with a simpler model, less numerical computations and with a clear physical picture of thermalization based on the statistical mechanics of chaotic system. The coherent field energy, like flux tubes formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions, may be redistributed among various degrees of freedom associated with spatial, color, chromo electric and magnetic fields due to chaos in YM theory.

The YMCM Hamiltonian is a $`SU(2)`$ YM Hamiltonian density in temperal gauge, $`A_0^a=0`$, and assuming that the vector potentials $`\stackrel{}{A}^a(t)`$ are functions of time only. It is given by

$$H_{YM}=\frac{1}{2}\underset{a}{}\dot{\stackrel{}{A}}_a^2+\frac{1}{4}g^2\underset{a,b}{}(\stackrel{}{A}_a\times \stackrel{}{A}_b)^2,$$
(1)
where $`g`$ is the gauge coupling constant and $`a=1,2,3`$ are color quantum numbers. The Hamiltonian, $`H_{YM}`$, may be rewritten in the form

$$H_{YM}=H_{FS}+T_{YM}=\frac{1}{2}(\dot{x}^2+\dot{y}^2+\dot{z}^2)+\frac{1}{2}g^2(x^2y^2+y^2z^2+z^2x^2)+T_{YM},$$
(2)
where $`H_{FS}`$ is called a fundamental subsystem (FS) of YMCM and $`T_{YM}`$ describes quasi-rotational freedoms. Let us consider a simpler two dimensional model ($`a=1,2`$ in Eq. (1)) and also without $`T_{YM}`$. The corresponding Hamiltonian is

$$H_2=\frac{1}{2}(\dot{x}^2+\dot{y}^2)+\frac{1}{2}g^2x^2y^2.$$
(3)
On redefining variables $`X_1gx`$ and $`X_2gy`$, it reduces to

$$Hg^2H_2=\frac{1}{2}(\dot{X}_1^2+\dot{X}_2^2)+\frac{1}{2}X_1^2X_2^2.$$
(4)
It is very similar to the quartic oscillator (QO) system with two degrees of freedom, which has been studied extensively both classicaly and quantum mechanicaly and is given by

$$H_Q=\frac{1}{2}(\dot{X}_1^2+\dot{X}_2^2)+\frac{(1\alpha )}{12}(X_1^4+X_2^4)+\frac{1}{2}X_1^2X_2^2,$$
(5)
where $`\alpha `$ is a parameter. For $`\alpha =1`$ it reduces to Eq.(4). QO system is highly chaotic for $`\alpha =1`$ and becomes less chaotic as $`\alpha `$ decreases as shown in Ref. .

When we make a connection between YMCM and QO, we may note that the variables $`X_i`$ have dimensions of energy ($`E`$). $`H_Q`$ is a constant of motion, say $`g^2\epsilon `$, and has dimension of energy density. Hence we normalize all variables by 4th root of $`g^2\epsilon `$ (say, $`E`$) to make them dimensionless. Thus we get,

$$H^{}=\frac{1}{2}(\dot{q}_1^2+\dot{q}_2^2)+\frac{(1\alpha )}{12}(q_1^4+q_2^4)+\frac{1}{2}q_1^2q_2^2,$$
(6)
where $`H^{}=1`$, $`q_iX_i/E`$ and $`\dot{q}_i\frac{dq_i}{d\tau }`$ and $`\tau Et`$. Now we can define the distance between two trajectories, $`D(\tau )`$, in phase space, as

$$D^G(\tau )=\sqrt{\underset{i=1}{\overset{2}{}}\left((q_iq_i^{})^2+(\dot{q}_i\dot{q^{}}_i)^2\right)},$$
(7)
where primed and unprimed variables describe two different trajectories. Superscript $`G`$ refers to the fact that it is the general definition used in text books  and Ref. . Note that without normalized variables, $`D(t)`$ is not dimensionally correct. Now the maximum Lyapunov exponent is defined as

$$\lambda _1\underset{\tau \mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{1}{\tau }\mathrm{ln}|\frac{D(\tau )}{D(0)}|=\frac{\lambda _E}{E},$$
(8)
where

$$\lambda _E\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{1}{t}\mathrm{ln}|\frac{D(t,E)}{D(0,E)}|.$$
(9)
Here $`D(t,E)`$ is given by

$$D(t,E)=\frac{1}{E}\sqrt{\underset{i=1}{\overset{2}{}}\left((X_iX_i^{})^2+(\dot{X}_i\dot{X^{}}_i)^2/E^2\right)},$$
(10)
$`\lambda _E`$ is equal to $`\lambda _1`$ for $`E=1`$ and for arbitrary $`E`$ or $`g^2\epsilon `$, $`\lambda _E`$ scales with $`E`$ or the 4th root of $`\epsilon `$ which has the dimension of energy. This is similar to the results of Müller et al., obtained numerically, whereas here it follows from a dimensional arguments. We have also numerically verified Eq. (9) with our model; this is tabulated in Table 1.

The maximum Lyapunov exponent is evaluated using the procedure of Joy and Sabir  using the Hamiltonian, Eq. (5), with $`\alpha =0.99`$, which is close to 1. For $`\alpha `$ exactly equal to 1, numerical calculations are not reliable and large numerical error develops which can be seen from the numerical values of $`\epsilon `$, which is a constant of motion. The Hamilton equations of motion, to be solved numerically, are

$$\dot{X}_1=X_3;\dot{X}_3=(\alpha 1)X_1^3/3X_1X_2^2;$$

$$\dot{X}_2=X_4;\dot{X}_4=(\alpha 1)X_2^3/3X_2X_1^2,$$
(11)
which follow from the Eq. (5). These equations are to be evolved along with the equation for their variations $`Y_i\delta X_i`$, which are given by

$$\dot{Y}_1=Y_3;\dot{Y}_3=((\alpha 1)X_1^2X_2^2)Y_12X_1X_2Y_2);$$

$$\dot{Y}_2=Y_4;\dot{Y}_4=((\alpha 1)X_2^2X_1^2)Y_22X_1X_2Y_1).$$
(12)
Then $`\lambda _E`$ is evaluated using the Eq. (9) for different $`E`$ and is tabulated in Table 1. It is in good agreement with the scaling relation.

However, it should be noted that the procedure used by Müller to evaluate $`\lambda `$ is not reliable here. They obtained $`\lambda `$ from the slope of the log-plot of $`D(t)`$ $`Vs`$ $`t`$. But here the slope depends on the initial conditions one uses. As an example a plot is given in Fig. 1, where two trajectories, separated initially by small distance, are evolved using the Eq. (11) for $`\alpha =0.99`$ with different initial conditions but with same energy ($`E=1`$).

Generally in gases and liquids, thermalization is due to collisions and the ratio of Kolmogorov entropy (KS-entropy) to collison frequency is related to the change in thermodynamic entropy $`S`$ . In our case there are no collisions but the nonlinearity of Yang-Mills equations drives the system chaotic or ergotic and hence the thermalization. KS-entropy is related to the sum of positive Lyapunov exponents and here we have only one positive LE and hence $`S_{KS}=\lambda _E`$. Let $`t_{th}`$ is the thermalization time, then $`S_{KS}t_{th}S`$ or

$$t_{th}S/S_{KS}=S(E)/\lambda _E\frac{1}{\lambda _1E}.$$
(13)
If we assume that our system is a subsystem and is in equilibrium with a larger system with average energy density ($`\epsilon `$) propotional to the $`4th`$ power of temperature ($`T`$), then $`t_{th}`$ is inversely propotional to $`T`$; this is consistent with earlier $`(3+1)`$ \- dimensional calculations . In addition there is a logarithmic dependence on $`T`$ because of $`S`$, which depends on energy density ($`S\mathrm{log}(\epsilon )`$) as discussed in Ref. .

$`(3+1)`$ \- dimensional YM system, discussed in Ref. , is a system with large degrees of freedom due to spatial dependence, and the thermalization there occurs, due to equal energy sharing between various modes by nonlinear interactions. In our case, we have Yang-Mills fields at a point and energy sharing is due to their nonlinear interactions between only 2 degrees of freedom. It should be noted that recent studies of systems with fewer degrees of freedom (even two degrees of freedom), which are chaotic systems, do exhibits thermalization or equipartitioning of energy and other statistical properties as discussed in Ref.  and reference there in. Here it is chaos which plays the role of collisions in statistical mechanics. In statistical mechanics, indeed we need large degrees of freedom to have a chaotic or ergotic motion. But here, even two degrees of freedom exhibits chaos and hence almost ergotic because of nonlinearity in the system. To understand it further, we may rewrite the Hamiltonian, Eq. (3), as

$$H_2=\frac{1}{2}(E_1^2+E_2^2)+\frac{1}{2}B_3^2,$$
(14)
using the defintion of electric and magnetic fields in terms of field tensor

$$G_a^{\mu \nu }=^\mu A_a^\nu ^\nu A_a^\mu +gϵ_{abc}A_b^\mu A_c^\nu ,$$

$`a,b,c`$ are color indices which take values 1, 2, 3 and Lorentz indices $`\mu ,\nu =0,1,2,3`$ with metric $`(1,1,1,1)`$. $`ϵ_{abc}`$ is antisymmetric Levi-Civita tensor. In our case $`a=1,2`$ and we use hedge hog ansatz and hence we have electric fields $`E_1`$, $`E_2`$ and magnetic field $`B_3`$. Now thermalization means sharing energy between electric and magnetic fields. If we start with whole energy, say, in electric field $`E_1`$, after thermalization the energy will be equally distributed between $`E_1,E_2`$ and $`B_3`$. As we discussed in , whenever a system is almost chaotic equipartition of energy takes place and

$$\dot{x}_1\frac{H_2}{\dot{x}_1}=\dot{x}_2\frac{H_2}{\dot{x}_2}=x_1\frac{H_2}{x_1}=x_2\frac{H_2}{x_2},$$
(15)
which is same as

$$E_1^2=E_2^2=B_3^2=\frac{2}{3}\epsilon ,$$
(16)
Here the angular brackets indicate the time average, which is also equal to the phase space average by ergotic theorem. Hence $`t_{th}`$ gives the time required to equilibrate energy between electric and magnetic fields and their components. This is a very important property of YM fields which, for example in relativistic heavy ion collisions, will thermalize the coherent fields formed immediately after the collision. This is due to the relaxation phenomena associated with color degrees of freedom rather than momentum relaxation. Further more, if we extrapolate the results of Ref.  on the quartic oscillators, with large degrees of freedom, to our system with large color degrees of freedom or large number of YMCM systems with few color degrees of freedom, the energy distribution in any one component of fields may be exponential decay with decay constant inversely proportional to temperature. In other words, corresponding field distribution is Gaussian with it’s width proportional to temperature. This is similar to the case of momentum relaxation, where one gets Gaussian momentum distribution of particles in statistical mechanics. It implies that, at low temperature, the probability to find any field component with low energy is high and hence the large number of gluons are with low energy. That is, low energy gluons macroscopically (largely) occupy YM system at low temperature which may be related to confinement. But at high temperature, field components with higher energy increase, but those of low energy decrease. Finally the probability to find low energy and high energy gluons will be of the same order. Now YM system may be in deconfined state.

So far our discussion is based on $`\lambda `$ which is evaluated using Eq. (10). However, in Ref. , they used somewhat different definition for $`D(t)`$. They defined

$$D^M(t)=|\underset{i}{}(E_i^2E_i^{}_{}{}^{}2)|,$$
(17)
where $`E_i`$ are the electric field components, which reduces (in our notations) to

$$D^M(t)=|\underset{i}{}(\dot{X}_i^2\dot{X^{}}_i^2)|/g=2|\underset{i}{}\dot{Y}_i\dot{X}_i|/g.$$
(18)
$`\dot{X}_i`$ and $`\dot{Y}_i`$ are evaluated from the Eqs. (11) and (12). Even though $`D^M(t)`$ is different from $`D^G(t)`$, we get the same results. If we take square root instead of modulus in Eq. (18) we get $`\lambda _E`$ about half of $`\lambda _E`$ obtained from Eq. (10). This is clear from the expression for $`D^M(t)`$ where the exponentially diverging term $`Y_i`$ appears as linear term, whereas in $`D^G(t)`$ it is quadratic.

In our numerical calculations, as can be seen from the Table 1, theoretical scaling behaviour of $`\lambda `$ with $`E`$ is confirmed. We also point out that the evaluation of $`\lambda `$ by the slope measurement of log plot of $`D(t)`$ $`Vs`$ $`t`$, where $`D(t)`$ is evaluted from two independent nearby trajectories, is not reliable. Where as standard method given in text books gives reliable results. This is probably because of the fact that LE concept is at the linear perturbation level, Eq. (12), and not with full nonlinear variations, as in Ref.  (by following two nearby trajectories separately).

In conclusion, using a simple QO model to represent the homogeneous $`SU(2)`$ YM fields, many qualitative properties obtained by extensive numerical calculation of $`(3+1)`$ \- dimensional YM fields can be reproduced. We obtained the linear relationship between maximum Lyapunov exponent and the 4th root of energy density, E, numerically as well as from a dimensional arguments. The slope of the linear relationship is $`0.4`$ which is of the same order as that of Müller et al.. We also obtained an expression for thermalization time and explained the physical picture of thermalization in our model. The thermalization time is of the order of $`1/(\lambda _1E)1fm/c`$ for $`g=1`$ and the energy density $`\epsilon =1GeV/fm^3`$ and inversely depends on the $`4th`$ power of energy density. In the case of relativistic heavy ion collisions, it may give an estimate of the order of magnitude of time required to redistribute the energy, stored initially in coherent fields, among all degrees of freedom associated with spatial, color, electric and magnetic fields, etc.

Table 1

| $`g^2\epsilon `$ | 1 | 16 | 81 | 256 | 625 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`\lambda _E`$ | 0.4 | 0.78 | 1.17 | 1.56 | 1.95 |