Let C(n) be a complete intersection monomial curve in the 4-dimensional affine space. In this paper we study the complete intersection property of the monomial curve C(n + wv), where w > 0 is an integer and v ∈ ℕ4. In addition, we investigate the Cohen–Macaulayness of the tangent cone of C(n + wv).
We study an operation, that we call lifting, creating nonisomorphic monomial curves from a single monomial curve. Our main result says that all but finitely many liftings of a monomial curve have Cohen–Macaulay tangent cones even if the tangent cone of the original curve is not Cohen–Macaulay. This implies that the Betti sequence of the tangent cone is eventually constant under this operation. Moreover, all liftings have Cohen–Macaulay tangent cones when the original monomial curve has a Cohen–Macaulay tangent cone. In this case, all the Betti sequences are just the Betti sequence of the original curve.
Let $a_1,\ldots,a_n$ be distinct, positive integers with $(a_1,\ldots,a_n)=1$, and let k be an arbitrary field. Let $H(a_1,\ldots,a_n;z)$ denote the Hilbert series of the graded algebra k$[t^{a_1},t^{a_2},\ldots,t^{a_n}]$. We show that, when $n=3$, this rational function has a simple expression in terms of $a_1,a_2,a_3$; in particular, the numerator has at most six terms. By way of contrast, it is known that no such expression exists for any $n\geq4$.