On the structure of the Sally module and the second normal Hilbert coefficient

Abstract

The Hilbert coefficients of the normal filtration give important geometric information on the base ring like the pseudo-rationality. The Sally module was introduced by W.V. Vasconcelos and it is useful to connect the Hilbert coefficients to the homological properties of the associated graded module of a Noetherian filtration. In this paper we give a complete structure of the Sally module in the case the second normal Hilbert coefficient attains almost minimal value in an analytically unramified Cohen-Macaulay local ring. As a consequence, in this case we present a complete description of the Hilbert function of the associated graded ring of the normal filtration. A deep analysis of the vanishing of the third normal Hilbert coefficient has been necessary. This study is related to a longstanding conjecture stated by S. Itoh.