Hodge ideals for Q-divisors: birational approach

We develop the theory of Hodge ideals for Q-divisors by means of log resolutions, extending our previous work on reduced hypersurfaces. We prove local (non-)triviality criteria and a global vanishing theorem, as well as other analogues of standard results from the theory of multiplier ideals, and we derive a new local vanishing theorem. The connection with the V-filtration is analyzed in a sequel.