Big Cohen-Macaulay algebras and the vanishing conjecture for maps of Tor in mixed characteristic (Q1621977)

This paper proves that a weak version of weakly functorial balanced big Cohen-Macaulay algebras exists. This result enables the authors to prove a vanishing property for maps of Tor in mixed characteristic. This was asked by \textit{M. Hochster} and \textit{C. Huneke} [Adv. Math. 113, No. 1, 45--117 (1995; Zbl 0834.13013)] and was known in the equal characteristic case. Also, an additional application is given, e.g., any direct summand of regular rings is pseudo-rational in mixed characteristic. The method of the paper is based on a calculation via perfectoid algebras. It may be nice to mension that another version of weakly functorial balanced big Cohen-Macaulay algebras exists by the very recent work of \textit{Y. Andre} [``Weak functoriality of Cohen-Macaulay algebras'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1801.10010}].