Essential and inessential elements of a standard basis

In this paper we introduce the concept of inessential element of a standard basis of I, where I is any homogeneous ideal of a polynomial ring. An inessential element is, roughly speaking, a form of the basis whose omission produces an ideal having the same saturation of I; it becomes useless in any dehomogenization of I with respect to a linear form. We study the properties of the basis linked to the presence of inessential elements and give some examples.