Enriched model categories and presheaf categories

We collect in one place a variety of known and folklore results in enriched model category theory and add a few new twists. The central theme is a general procedure for constructing a Quillen adjunction, often a Quillen equivalence, between a given V-model category and a category of enriched presheaves in V, where V is any good enriching category. For example, we rederive the result of Schwede and Shipley that reasonable stable model categories are Quillen equivalent to presheaf categories of spectra (alias categories of module spectra) under more general hypotheses. The technical improvements and modifications of general model categorical results given here are applied to equivariant contexts in a pair of sequels, where we indicate various directions of application.Comment: 45 pages. v4. A number of relatively small changes and updates from the previous version, intended to address the most recent referee's report. The most significant change is the addition of section 4.5, which discusses Muro's work on arranging for a cofibrant uni

Stiffness of finite free resolutions and the Canonical Element Conjecture

Over a noetherian local ring certain minimal finite free resolutions possess a property which we call stiffness. This calls to mind the Buchsbaum-Eisenbud criterion for exactness. Yet we only prove stiffness over equicharacteristic rings. However, Hochster's Canonical Element Conjecture is shown to be true for every ring with a fixed prime residual characteristic, precisely when every resolution over each Gorenstein ring of this type is stiff.Comment: 11 page