Applications and homological properties of local rings with decomposable maximal ideals

We construct a local Cohen–Macaulay ring R with a prime ideal $\mathfrak{p}\in \mathrm{Spec}(R)$ such that R satisfies the uniform Auslander condition (UAC), but the localization $R_{\mathfrak{p}}$ does not satisfy Auslander's condition (AC). Given any positive integer n, we also construct a local Cohen–Macaulay ring R with a prime ideal $\mathfrak{p}\in \mathrm{Spec}(R)$ such that R has exactly two non-isomorphic semidualizing modules, but the localization $R_{\mathfrak{p}}$ has $2^n$ non-isomorphic semidualizing modules. Each of these examples is constructed as a fiber product of two local rings over their common residue field. Additionally, we characterize the non-trivial Cohen–Macaulay fiber products of finite Cohen–Macaulay type.     

Almost slender rings and compact rings

Classical results concerning slenderness for commutative integral domains are generalized to commutative rings with zero divisors. This is done by extending the methods from the domain case and bringing them in connection with results on the linear topologies associated to non-discrete Hausdorff filtrations. In many cases a weakened notion “almost slenderness” of slenderness is appropriate for rings with zero divisors. Special results for countable rings are extended to rings said to be of “bounded type” (including countable rings, ‘small’ rings, and, for instance, rings that are countably generated as algebras over an Artinian ring).More precisely, for a ring R of bounded type it is proved that R is slender if R is reduced and has no simple ideals, or if R is Noetherian and has no simple ideals; moreover, R is almost slender if R is not perfect (in the sense of H. Bass). We use our methods to study various special classes of rings, for instance von Neumann regular rings and valuation rings. Among other results we show that the following two rings are slender: the ring of Puiseux series over a field and the von Neumann regular ring $k^{\mathbb{N}}/k^{(\mathbb{N})}$ over a von Neumann regular ring k.For a Noetherian ring R we prove that R is a finite product of local complete rings iff R satisfies one of several (equivalent) conditions of algebraic compactness. A 1-dimensional Noetherian ring is outside this ‘compact’ class precisely when it is almost slender. For the rings of classical algebraic geometry we prove that a localization of an algebra finitely generated over a field is either Artinian or almost slender. Finally, we show that a Noetherian ring R is a finite product of local complete rings with finite residue fields exactly when there exists a map of R-algebras $R^{\mathbb{N}}\to R$ vanishing on $R^{(\mathbb{N})}$.     

Noetherian-like properties in polynomial and power series rings

There are many Noetherian-like rings. Among them, we are interested in SFT-rings, piecewise Noetherian rings, and rings with Noetherian prime spectrum. Some of them are stable under polynomial extensions but none of them are stable under power series extensions. We give partial answers to some open questions related with stabilities of such rings. In particular, we show that any mixed extensions $R[X_1??[X_n?$ over a zero-dimensional SFT ring R are also SFT-rings, and that if R is an SFT-domain such that $R/P$ is integrally closed for each prime ideal P of R, then $R[X]$ is an SFT-ring. We also give a direct proof that if R is an SFT Prüfer domain, then $R[X_1,?,X_n]$ is an SFT-ring. Finally, we show that the power series extension $R?X?$ over a Prüfer domain R is piecewise Noetherian if and only if R is Noetherian.     

R+ˆ is surprisingly an integral domain

It is shown that if $(R,\mathfrak{m},k)$ is a complete local domain with $\mathrm{char}k=p>0$ and $R^{+}$ is its integral closure in an algebraic closure of the quotient field, then both the $\mathfrak{m}$-adic and p-adic completions of $R^{+}$ are integral domains. More generally, this theorem remains true if the completeness assumption is relaxed to allow R to be an analytically irreducible Henselian local ring. It is also shown that these rings, which are Cohen-Macaulay R-modules (even balanced in the $\mathfrak{m}$-adic case), will have dimension larger than the dimension of R unless $\dim ?R\le 1$.     

Torsion completions are bounded

Given a commutative ring A and a finitely generated ideal I, we prove that $I^{\infty }$-torsion A-modules that are also I-adically complete (or merely derived I-complete) must have bounded $I^{\infty }$-torsion, i.e., they are killed by $I^n$ for some $n\ge 0$.     

Embeddings of canonical modules and resolutions of connected sums

For an ideal $I_{m,n}$ generated by all square-free monomials of degree m in a polynomial ring R with n variables, we obtain a specific embedding of a canonical module of $R/I_{m,n}$ to $R/I_{m,n}$ itself. The construction of this explicit embedding depends on a minimal free R-resolution of an ideal generated by $I_{m,n}$. Using this embedding, we give a resolution of connected sums of several copies of certain Artin $\mathsf{k}$-algebras where $\mathsf{k}$ is a field.     

Cancellation of projective modules over polynomial extensions over a two-dimensional ring

Let R be a commutative Noetherian ring of dimension two with $1/2\in R$ and let $A=R[X_1,?,X_n]$. Let P be a projective A-module of rank 2. In this article, we prove that P is cancellative if ${\wedge }^2(P)\oplus A$ is cancellative.     

Exterior powers and Tor-persistence

A commutative Noetherian ring R is said to be Tor-persistent if, for any finitely generated R-module M, the vanishing of ${\mathrm{Tor}}_i^R(M,M)$ for $i?0$ implies M has finite projective dimension. An open question of Avramov, et al. asks whether any such R is Tor-persistent. In this work, we exploit properties of exterior powers of modules and complexes to provide several partial answers to this question; in particular, we show that every local ring $(R,\mathfrak{m})$ with ${\mathfrak{m}}^3=0$ is Tor-persistent. As a consequence of our methods, we provide a new proof of the Tachikawa Conjecture for positively graded rings over a field of characteristic different from 2.     

Algebraic jump loci for rank and Betti numbers over Laurent polynomial rings

Let C be a chain complex of finitely generated free modules over a commutative Laurent polynomial ring $L_s$ in s indeterminates. Given a group homomorphism $p:{\mathbb{Z}}^s?{\mathbb{Z}}^t$ we let $p_{!}(C)=C{?}_{L_s}{L}_t$ denote the resulting induced complex over the Laurent polynomial ring $L_t$ in t indeterminates. We prove that the Betti number jump loci, that is, the sets of those homomorphisms p such that $b_k(p_{!}(C))>b_k(C)$, have a surprisingly simple structure. We allow non-unital commutative rings of coefficients, and work with a notion of Betti numbers that generalises both the usual one for integral domains, and the analogous concept involving McCoy ranks in case of unital commutative rings.     

On a characterization of path connected topological fields

The aim of this paper is to give a characterization of path connected topological fields, inspired by the classical Gelfand correspondence between a compact Hausdorff topological space X and the space of maximal ideals of the ring of real valued continuous functions $C(X,\mathbb{R})$. More explicitly, our motivation is the following question: What is the essential property of the topological field $F=\mathbb{R}$ that makes such a correspondence valid for all compact Hausdorff spaces? It turns out that such a perfect correspondence exists if and only if F is a path connected topological field.     

The projective dimension of three cubics is at most 5

Let R be a polynomial ring over a field and I an ideal generated by three forms of degree three. Motivated by Stillman's question, Engheta proved that the projective dimension $\mathrm{pd}(R/I)$ of $R/I$ is at most 36, although the example with largest projective dimension he constructed has $\mathrm{pd}(R/I)=5$. Based on computational evidence, it had been conjectured that $\mathrm{pd}(R/I)\le 5$. In the present paper we prove this conjectured sharp bound.     

Projective generation of ideals in a certain ring

Let R be an affine domain of dimension $n\ge 3$ over a field of characteristic 0 and $D=R[X,Y]/(XY)$. Let $I?D$ be a local complete intersection ideal of height n such that $\mu (I/I^2)=n$. This paper examines under what condition I is surjective image of a projective D-module of rank n.     

Powers of sums and their homological invariants

Let R and S be standard graded algebras over a field k, and $I?R$ and $J?S$ homogeneous ideals. Denote by P the sum of the extensions of I and J to $R{?}_{k}S$. We investigate several important homological invariants of powers of P based on the information about I and J, with focus on finding the exact formulas for these invariants. Our investigation exploits certain Tor vanishing property of natural inclusion maps between consecutive powers of I and J. As a consequence, we provide fairly complete information about the depth and regularity of powers of P given that R and S are polynomial rings and either $\mathrm{char}k=0$ or I and J are generated by monomials.