Big Cohen-Macaulay modules, morphisms of perfect complexes, and intersection theorems in local algebra (Q1621842)

The main result of the present paper, which the authors refer to as the \emph{Tensor Nilpotence Theorem}, provides a sufficient condition for a morphism of perfect complexes, over a commutative noetherian ring, that ensures the existence of a tensor power of the morphism homotopic to zero. Using the Tensor Nilpotence Theorem, the authors provide direct proofs of several well-known theorems, such as the Monomial Theorem and several versions of the Canonical Element Theorem. Moreover they use their main result to prove a strengthening of the Improved New Intersection Theorem. The proof of the Tensor Nilpotence Theorem relies on the existence of big Cohen-Macaulay modules, whose existence was proved by Hochster for algebras over fields and recently proved in the mixed characteristic case by \textit{Y. André} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 127, 71--93 (2018; Zbl 1419.13029)]. The authors strengthen the Improved New Intersection Theorem, not only by having a weaker hypothesis on the homology of the complex, but by replacing the span of the complex with its level, an invariant that measures the minimal number of mapping cones needed to assemble the complex (in the derived category) from perfect complexes with zero differentials, which is smaller than its span. The authors end the paper with one more application. They prove a theorem that implies that the well-known Rank Conjecture of Eisenbud and Buchsbaum holds true for resolutions of modules of finite length admitting a DG-module structure over a Koszul complex on some system of parameters.