Locally complete intersection homomorphisms and a conjecture of Quillen on the vanishing of cotangent homology

Classical definitions of locally complete intersection (l.c.i.) homomorphisms of commutative rings are limited to maps that are essentially of finite type, or flat. The concept introduced in this paper is meaningful for homomorphisms phi : R \longrightarrow S of commutative noetherian rings. It is defined in terms of the structure of phi in a formal neighborhood of each point of Spec S. We characterize the l.c.i. property by different conditions on the vanishing of the Andr\'e-Quillen homology of the R-algebra S. One of these descriptions establishes a very general form of a conjecture of Quillen that was open even for homomorphisms of finite type: If S has a finite resolution by flat R-modules and the cotangent complex \cot SR is quasi-isomorphic to a bounded complex of flat S-modules, then phi is l.c.i. The proof uses a mixture of methods from commutative algebra, differential graded homological algebra, and homotopy theory. The l.c.i. property is shown to be stable under a variety of operations, including composition, decomposition, flat base change, localization, and completion. The present framework allows for the results to be stated in proper generality; many of them are new even with classical assumptions. For instance, the stability of l.c.i. homomorphisms under decomposition settles an open case in Fulton's treatment of orientations of morphisms of schemes.Comment: 33 pages, published versio

A cohomological study of local rings of embedding codepth 3

The generating series of the Bass numbers $\mu^i_R=\mathrm{rank}_k \mathrm{Ext}^i_R(k,R)$ of local rings $R$ with residue field $k$ are computed in closed rational form, in case the embedding dimension $e$ of $R$ and its depth $d$ satisfy $e-d\le 3$. For each such $R$ it is proved that there is a real number $\gamma>1$, such that $\mu^{d+i}_R\ge\gamma\mu^{d+i-1}_R$ holds for all $i\ge 0$, except for $i=2$ in two explicitly described cases, where $\mu^{d+2}_R=\mu^{d+1}_R=2$. New restrictions are obtained on the multiplicative structures of minimal free resolutions of length 3 over regular local rings.Comment: In version 2 numerous typos have been corrected, details have been added in a few places, and local rearrangements have been made. To appear in JPAA. 24 page

Stable cohomology over local rings

The focus of this paper is on a poorly understood invariant of a commutative noetherian local ring $R$ with residue field $k$: the stable cohomology modules $\hat{Ext}^{n}_R(k,k)$, defined for each $n\in\mathbb{Z}$ by Benson and Carlson, Mislin, and Vogel; it coincides with Tate cohomology when $R$ is Gorenstein. It is proved that important properties of $R$, such as being regular, complete intersection, or Gorenstein, are detected by the $k$-rank of $\hat{Ext}^{n}_R(k,k)$ for an arbitrary $n\in\mathbb{Z}$. Such numerical characterizations are made possible by results on the structure of $\mathbb{Z}$-graded $k$-algebra carried by $\hat{Ext}^{n}_R(k,k)$. It is proved that in many cases this algebra is determined by the absolute cohomology algebra through a canonical homomorphism ${Ext}^{n}_R(k,k)\to\hat{Ext}^{n}_R(k,k)$.Comment: Final version, to appear in Adv. Math. Major reorganization of the presentation. Many minor correction

Cohomology over complete intersections via exterior algebras

A general method for establishing results over a commutative complete intersection local ring by passing to differential graded modules over a graded exterior algebra is described. It is used to deduce, in a uniform way, results on the growth of resolutions of complexes over such local rings.Comment: 18 pages; to appear in "Triangulated categories (Leeds, 2006)", LMS lecture notes series

Constructing modules with prescribed cohomological support

A cohomological support, Supp_A(M), is defined for finitely generated modules M over an left noetherian ring R, with respect to a ring A of central cohomology operations on the derived category of R-modules. It is proved that if the A-module Ext^R(M,M) is noetherian and Ext_i^R(M,R)=0 for i>>0, then every closed subset of Supp_A(M) is the support of some finitely generated R-module. This theorem specializes to known realizability results for varieties of modules over group algebras, over local complete intersections, and over finite dimensional algebras over a field. The theorem is also used to produce large families of finitely generated modules of finite projective dimension over commutative local noetherian rings.Comment: To appear in the Illinois Journal of Mathematics, the issue honoring Phillip Griffith. Revised version has 18 pages. A word (the first one) has been added to the title and the material has been reorganized into seven sections, in place of the original six. There are, however, no changes of any substanc

Homology over local homomorphisms

The notions of Betti numbers and of Bass numbers of a finite module N over a local ring R are extended to modules that are only assumed to be finite over S, for some local homomorphism f: R --> S. Various techniques are developed to study the new invariants and to establish their basic properties. In several cases they are computed in closed form. Applications go in several directions. One is to identify new classes of finite R-modules whose classical Betti numbers or Bass numbers have extremal growth. Another is to transfer ring theoretical properties between R and S in situations where S may have infinite flat dimension over R. A third is to obtain criteria for a ring equipped with a `contracting' endomorphism -- such as the Frobenius endomorphism -- to be regular or complete intersection; these results represent broad generalizations of Kunz's characterization of regularity in prime characteristic.Comment: To appear in the American Journal of Mathematics; new version has minor changes in the presentation; table of content removed; 52 page