We invoke the Bernstein–Gel$'$fand–Gel$'$fand (BGG) correspondence to study subcomplexes of free resolutions given by two well-known complexes, the Koszul and the Eagon–Northcott. This approach provides a complete characterization of the ranks of free modules in a subcomplex in the Koszul case and imposes numerical restrictions in the Eagon–Northcott case.

We investigate whether the property of having linear quotients is inherited by ideals generated by multigraded shifts of a Borel ideal and a squarefree Borel ideal. We show that the ideal generated by the first multigraded shifts of a Borel ideal has linear quotients, as do the ideal generated by the $k$th multigraded shifts of a principal Borel ideal and an equigenerated squarefree Borel ideal for each $k$. Furthermore, we show that equigenerated squarefree Borel ideals share the property of being squarefree Borel with the ideals generated by multigraded shifts.

This work generalises the short resolution given by Pisón Casares [‘The short resolution of a lattice ideal’, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc.131(4) (2003), 1081–1091] to any affine semigroup. We give a characterisation of Apéry sets which provides a simple way to compute Apéry sets of affine semigroups and Frobenius numbers of numerical semigroups. We also exhibit a new characterisation of the Cohen–Macaulay property for simplicial affine semigroups.

We prove that the Veronese embedding φ$_{\cal O \Bbb P}$n(d):$\Bbb P$n$\hookrightarrow \Bbb P$N with n[ges ]2, d[ges ]3 does not satisfy property Np (according to Green and Lazarsfeld) if p[ges ]3d−2. We make the conjecture that also the converse holds. This is true for n=2 and for n=d=3.

We consider the surface obtained from the projective plane by blowing up the points of intersection of two plane curves meeting transversely. We find minimal generating sets of the defining ideals of these surfaces embedded in projective space by the sections of a very ample divisor class. All of the results are proven over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic.