Abstract: | The Rees algebra is the homogeneous coordinate ring of a blowing-up. The present paper gives a necessary and sufficient condition for a Noetherian local ring to have a Cohen-Macaulay Rees algebra: A Noetherian local ring has a Cohen-Macaulay Rees algebra if and only if it is unmixed and all the formal fibers of it are Cohen-Macaulay. As a consequence of it, we characterize a homomorphic image of a Cohen-Macaulay local ring. For non-local rings, this paper gives only a sufficient condition. By using it, however, we obtain the affirmative answer to Sharp's conjecture. That is, a Noetherian ring having a dualizing complex is a homomorphic image of a finite-dimensional Gorenstein ring. |