Generic Noncommutative Surfaces

We study a class of noncommutative surfaces and their higher dimensional analogues which provide answers to several open questions in noncommutative projective geometry. Specifically, we give the first known graded algebras which are noetherian but not strongly noetherian, answering a question of Artin, Small, and Zhang. In addition, these examples are maximal orders and satisfy the $\chi_1$ condition but not $\chi_i$ for $i \geq 2$, answering a questions of Stafford and Zhang and a question of Stafford and Van den Bergh. Finally, we show that these algebras have finite cohomological dimension.Comment: 43 pages, Latex, to appear in Advances in Math. Result on finite global dimension added, other minor change

Factorizations of Elements in Noncommutative Rings: A Survey

We survey results on factorizations of non zero-divisors into atoms (irreducible elements) in noncommutative rings. The point of view in this survey is motivated by the commutative theory of non-unique factorizations. Topics covered include unique factorization up to order and similarity, 2-firs, and modular LCM domains, as well as UFRs and UFDs in the sense of Chatters and Jordan and generalizations thereof. We recall arithmetical invariants for the study of non-unique factorizations, and give transfer results for arithmetical invariants in matrix rings, rings of triangular matrices, and classical maximal orders as well as classical hereditary orders in central simple algebras over global fields.Comment: 50 pages, comments welcom

Specialization orders on atom spectra of Grothendieck categories

We introduce systematic methods to construct Grothendieck categories from colored quivers and develop a theory of the specialization orders on the atom spectra of Grothendieck categories. We show that any partially ordered set is realized as the atom spectrum of some Grothendieck category, which is an analog of Hochster's result in commutative ring theory. We also show that there exists a Grothendieck category which has empty atom spectrum but has nonempty injective spectrum.Comment: 39 page