Families of artinian and low dimensional determinantal rings

Abstract: Let GradAlg(H) be the scheme parameterizing graded quotients of R=k[x_0,...,x_n] with Hilbert function H (it is a subscheme of the Hilbert scheme of P^n if we restrict to quotients of positive dimension, see definition below). A graded quotient A=R/I of codimension c is called standard determinantal if the ideal I can be generated by the t by t minors of a homogeneous t by (t+c-1) matrix (f_{ij}). Given integers a_0\le a_1\le ...\le a_{t+c-2} and b_1\le ...\le b_t, we denote by W_s(\underline{b};\underline{a}) the stratum of GradAlg(H) of determinantal rings where f_{ij} \in R are homogeneous of degrees a_j-b_i. In this paper we extend previous results on the dimension and codimension of W_s(\underline{b};\underline{a}) in GradAlg(H) to {\it artinian determinantal rings}, and we show that GradAlg(H) is generically smooth along W_s(\underline{b};\underline{a}) under some assumptions. For zero and one dimensional determinantal schemes we generalize earlier results on these questions. As a consequence we get that the general element of a component W of the Hilbert scheme of P^n is glicci provided W contains a standard determinantal scheme satisfying some conditions. We also show how certain ghost terms disappear under deformation while other ghost terms remain and are present in the minimal resolution of a general element of GradAlg(H).