A central problem in liaison theory is to decide whether every arithmetically Cohen–Macaulay subscheme of projective $n$-space can be linked by a finite number of arithmetically Gorenstein schemes to a complete intersection. We show that this can indeed be achieved if the given scheme is also generically Gorenstein and we allow the links to take place in an $(n+ 1)$-dimensional projective space. For example, this result applies to all reduced arithmetically Cohen–Macaulay subschemes. We also show that every union of fat points in projective 3-space can be linked in the same space to a union of simple points in finitely many steps, and hence to a complete intersection in projective 4-space.

In an earlier work, the authors described a mechanism for lifting monomial ideals to reduced unions of linear varieties. When the monomial ideal is Cohen–Macaulay (including Artinian), the corresponding union of linear varieties is arithmetically Cohen–Macaulay. The first main result of this paper is that if the monomial ideal is Artinian then the corresponding union is in the Gorenstein linkage class of a complete intersection (glicci). This technique has some interesting consequences. For instance, given any (d + 1)-times differentiable O-sequence H, there is a nondegenerate arithmetically Cohen–Macaulay reduced union of linear varieties with Hilbert function H which is glicci. In other words, any Hilbert function that occurs for arithmetically Cohen–Macaulay schemes in fact occurs among the glicci schemes. This is not true for licci schemes. Modifying our technique, the second main result is that any Cohen–Macaulay Borel-fixed monomial ideal is glicci. As a consequence, all arithmetically Cohen–Macaulay subschemes of projective space are glicci up to flat deformation.