Schubert determinantal ideals are Hilbertian

Abstract

Abhyankar defined an ideal to be Hilbertian if its Hilbert polynomial coincides with its Hilbert function for all nonnegative integers. In 1984, he proved that the ideal of $(r+1)$-order minors of a generic $p\times q$ matrix is Hilbertian. We give a different proof and a generalization to the Schubert determinantal ideals introduced by Fulton in 1992. Our proof reduces to a simple upper bound for the Castelnuovo–Mumford regularity of these ideals. We further indicate the pervasiveness of the Hilbertian property in Schubert geometry.