Bernstein-Sato polynomials of arbitrary varieties

Nero Budur, Mircea Mustata, Morihiko Saito

Published 2004-08-30, updated 2005-09-19Version 6

We introduce the notion of Bernstein-Sato polynomial of an arbitrary variety (which is not necessarily reduced nor irreducible), using the theory of V-filtrations of M. Kashiwara and B. Malgrange. We prove that the decreasing filtration by multiplier ideals coincides essentially with the restriction of the V-filtration. This implies a relation between the roots of the Bernstein-Sato polynomial and the jumping coefficients of the multiplier ideals, and also a criterion for rational singularities in terms of the maximal root of the polynomial in the case of a reduced complete intersection. These are generalizations of the hypersurface case. We can calculate the polynomials explicitly in the case of monomial ideals.