ar X iv : m at h / 05 07 56 5 v 1 [ m at h . C O ] 2 7 Ju l 2 00 5 REVERSE LEXICOGRAPHIC AND LEXICOGRAPHIC SHIFTING

A short new proof of the fact that all shifted complexes are fixed by reverse lexicographic shifting is given. A notion of lexicographic shifting, ∆ lex — an operation that transforms a monomial ideal of S = k[x i : i ∈ N] that is finitely generated in each degree into a squarefree strongly stable ideal — is defined and studied. It is proved that (in contrast to the reverse lexicographic case) a squarefree strongly stable ideal I ⊂ S is fixed by lexicographic shifting if and only if I is a universal squarefree lexsegment ideal (abbreviated USLI) of S. Moreover, in the case when I is finitely generated and is not a USLI, it is verified that all the ideals in the sequence {∆ i lex (I)} ∞ i=0 are distinct. The limit ideal ∆(I) = lim i→∞ ∆ i lex (I) is well defined and is a USLI that depends only on a certain analog of the Hilbert function of I.