Powers of sums and their homological invariants

Abstract: Let $R$ and $S$ be standard graded algebras over a field $k$, and $I \subseteq R$ and $J \subseteq S$ homogeneous ideals. Denote by $P$ the sum of the extensions of $I$ and $J$ to $R\otimes_k S$. We investigate several important homological invariants of powers of $P$ based on the information about $I$ and $J$, with focus on finding the exact formulas for these invariants. Our investigation exploits certain Tor vanishing property of natural inclusion maps between consecutive powers of $I$ and $J$. As a consequence, we provide fairly complete information about the depth and regularity of powers of $P$ given that $R$ and $S$ are polynomial rings and either $\text{char}~ k=0$ or $I$ and $J$ are generated by monomials.