The study of separating invariants is a recent trend in invariant theory. For a finite group acting linearly on a vector space, a separating set is a set of invariants whose elements separate the orbits of G. In some ways, separating sets often exhib
it better behavior than generating sets for the ring of invariants. We investigate the least possible cardinality of a separating set for a given G-action. Our main result is a lower bound that generalizes the classical result of Serre that if the ring of invariants is polynomial then the group action must be generated by pseudoreflections. We find these bounds to be sharp in a wide range of examples.
We prove a characterization of the j-multiplicity of a monomial ideal as the normalized volume of a polytopal complex. Our result is an extension of Teissiers volume-theoretic interpretation of the Hilbert-Samuel multiplicity for m-primary monomial i
deals. We also give a description of the epsilon-multiplicity of a monomial ideal in terms of the volume of a region.
