Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2016
For a monomial ideal I of a polynomial ring S, a polarization of I is a square-free monomial ideal J of a larger polynomial ring such that S/I is a quotient of /J by a (linear) regular sequence. We show that a Borel fixed ideal admits a nonstandard polarization. For example, while the usual polarization sends ours sends it to x1y2y3 Using this idea, we recover/refine the results on square-free operation in the shifting theory of simplicial complexes. The present paper generalizes a result of Nagel and Reiner, although our approach is very different.