Given a finitely generated -graded module over a graded ring (finitely generated over , which is an Artinian local ring), define the Hilbert function of as the map such that, for all ,
(1)
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where denotes the length. If is the dimension of , then there exists a polynomial of degree with rational coefficients (called the Hilbert polynomial of ) such that for all sufficiently large .
The power series
(2)
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is called the Hilbert series of . It is a rational function that can be written in a unique way in the form
(3)
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where is a finite linear combination with integer coefficients of powers of and . If is positively graded, i.e., for all , then is an ordinary polynomial with integer coefficients in the variable . If moreover , then , i.e., the Hilbert series is a polynomial.