Bounds on Generalized Multiplicities and on Heights of Determinantal Ideals

This thesis has three major topics. The first is on generalized multiplicities. The second is on height bounds for ideals of minors of matrices with a given rank. The last topic is on the ideal of minors of generic generalized diagonal matrices.

In the first part of this thesis, we discuss various generalizations of Hilbert-Samuel multiplicity. These include the Buchsbaum-Rim multiplicity, mixed multiplicities, $j$-multiplicity, and $\varepsilon$-multiplicity. For $(R,m)$ a Noetherian local ring of dimension $d$ and $I$ a $m$-primary ideal in $R$, Lech showed the following bound for the Hilbert-Samuel multiplicity of $I$, $e(I) \leq d!\lambda(R/I)e(m)$. Huneke, Smirnov, and Validashti improved the bound to $e(mI) \leq d!\lambda(R/I)e(m)$. We generalize the improved bound to the Buchsbaum-Rim multiplicity and to mixed multiplicities. 

For the second part of the thesis we discuss bounds on heights of ideals of minors of matrices. A classical bound for these heights was shown by Eagon and Northcott. Bruns' bound is an improvement on the Eagon-Northcott bound taking into consideration the rank of the matrix. We prove an analogous bound to Bruns' bound for alternating matrices. We then discuss an open problem by Eisenbud, Huneke, and Ulrich that asks for height bounds for symmetric matrices given their rank. We show a few reduction steps and prove some small cases of this problem. 

Finally, for the last topic we explore properties of the ideal of minors of generic generalized diagonal matrices. Generalized diagonal matrices are matrices with two ladders of zeros in the bottom left and top right corners. We compute their initial ideals and give a description of the facets of their Stanley-Reisner complex. Using this description, we characterize when these ideals are Cohen-Macaulay. In the special case where the ladders of zeros are triangles, we compute the height and multiplicity