Carlsson's rank conjecture and a conjecture on square-zero upper triangular matrices (Q1730885)

A well-known conjecture in algebraic topology states that if the group $G=(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z})^r$ acts freely and cellularly on a finite $CW$-complex homotopy equivalent to the product of spheres $\mathbb{S}^{n_1}\times\cdots \times\mathbb{S}^{n_m}$, then $r$ is less than or equal to $m$. Many authors have studied this intriguing conjecture in its various aspects but the general case $m\ge 5$ is still open. \par A stronger and purely algebraic conjecture can be stated. Let $k$ be an algebraically closed field and $A$ the polynomial algebra in $r$ variables with coefficients in $k$. In case the characteristic of $k$ is $2$, \textit{G. Carlsson} [Lect. Notes Math. 1217, 79--83 (1986; Zbl 0614.57023)] conjectured that for any $DG$-$A$-module $M$ of dimension $n$ as a free $A$-module, if the homology of $M$ is nontrivial and finite dimensional as a $k$-vector space, then $2r \le n$. \par The authors state a stronger conjecture about varieties of square-zero upper triangular $n \times n$ matrices with entries in $A$ and show that the stronger conjecture holds when $n < 8$ or $r < 3$ without any restriction on the characteristic of $k$. As a consequence, a new proof for many of the known cases of Carlsson's conjecture is presented and new results when $n >4$ and $r = 2$ are given.