On the finitistic dimension conjecture for artinian rings (Q1191454)

By definition the left finitistic dimension, \(\text{findim }R\), of a ring \(R\) is the supremum of the projective dimensions of all finitely generated left \(R\)-modules having finite projective dimension. It has been conjectured by Rosenberg and Zelinsky that \(\text{findim }R\) is finite for each finite dimensional algebra \(R\) over a field. The conjecture has been verified for finite dimensional monomial algebras by \textit{E. L. Green}, \textit{E. Kirkman} and \textit{J. Kuzmanovich} [J. Algebra 136, 37-50 (1991; Zbl 0727.16003)] and for left artinian rings whose cube of the radical is zero by \textit{E. L. Green} and \textit{B. Zimmermann Huisgen} [Math. Z. 206, 505-526 (1991; Zbl 0707.16002)]. The present article further contributes to the conjecture. Firstly the proof of the result by Green and Zimmermann Huisgen is simplified by use of the following nice formula \[ \text{pd}({}_ R M)\leq \text{pd}({}_{eRe}e\cdot M)+\sup\{\text{pd}({}_ R L)\mid e\cdot L=0\}+1, \] where \(_ R M\) is some left \(R\)-module and \(e\neq 0\) and idempotent in \(R\). Secondly this formula is further applied to exhibit other types of rings satisfying the finitistic dimension conjecture. For instance it is proved that \(\text{findim }R<\infty\) if \(R\) is left serial. At the end of the paper two interesting examples are presented.