2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/112658We show that all monomial ideals in the polynomial ring in at most 3 variables are pretty clean and that an arbitrary monomial ideal $I$ is pretty clean if and only if its polarization $I^p$ is clean. This yields a new characterization of pretty clean monomial ideals in terms of the arithmetic degree, and it also implies that a multicomplex is shellable if and only the simplicial complex corresponding to its polarization is (non-pure) shellable. We also discuss Stanley decompositions in relation to prime filtrations.Commutative Algebra13D02; 13P10; 13D40; 13A02Prime filtrations of monomial ideals and polarizationstext