Containment problem and combinatorics

Abstract

In this note we consider two configurations of twelve lines with nineteen triple points (i.e., points where three lines meet). Both of them have the same combinatorial features. In both configurations nine of twelve lines have five triple points and one double point, and the remaining three lines have four triple points and three double points. Taking the ideal of the triple points of these configurations we discover that, quite surprisingly, for one of the configurations the containment $I^{(3)} \subset I^2$ holds, while for the other it does not. Hence for ideals of points defined by configurations of lines the (non)containment of a symbolic power in an ordinary power is not determined alone by combinatorial features of the arrangement. Moreover, for the configuration with the non-containment $I^{(3)} \nsubseteq I^2$ we examine its parameter space, which turns out to be a rational curve, and thus establish the existence of a rational non-containment configuration of points. Such rational examples are very rare.