Contracting endomorphisms and Gorenstein modules (Q1016490)

Let \((R, \mathfrak m)\) denote a local noetherian ring. An endomorphism \(\phi : R \to R\) is called contracting provided \(\phi^i(\mathfrak m) \subset \mathfrak m\) for some non-negative integer \(i.\) The Frobenius endomorphism of a ring of positive characteristic is a typical example of a contracting endomorphism. A finitely generated \(R\)-module \(M\) is called Gorenstein, if it is maximal Cohen-Macaulay and has finite injective dimension. The main result of the paper is the equivalence of the following conditions: (a) \(R\) is Cohen-Macaulay and \(M\) is Gorenstein. (b) \(M \simeq \text{Hom}_R({}^{\phi}R, M)\) and \(\text{Ext}_R^i({}^{\phi} R, M) = 0\) for all \(i \geq 1.\) (c) \(M\) is isomorphic to a direct summand of \(\text{Hom}_R({}^{\phi}R , M)\) and \(\text{Ext}_R^i({}^{\phi}R, M) = 0\) for \(1 \leq i \leq \text{depth} M.\) -- Here \({}^{\phi}R\) is \(R\) viewed as a module over itself via \(\phi.\) In the case of \(\phi\) the Frobenius endomorphism and \(M = R\) this result was shown by \textit{S. Goto} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 64, 199--205 (1977; Zbl 0408.13008)]. For his proof the author needs a different method. As another application there is a short proof of a special case of a recent result of \textit{S. Iyengar} and \textit{S. Sather-Wagstaff} [Ill. J. Math. 48, No. 1, 241--272 (2004; Zbl 1103.13009)]: Let \(\phi : R \to R\) be a finite contracting homomorphism. Then \(R\) is a Gorenstein ring if and only if \(\text{G-dim}_R({}^{\phi}R)\) is finite.