Decomposing Gorenstein rings as connected sums (Q1732896)

\textit{H. Ananthnarayan} et al. [J. Reine Angew. Math. 667, 149--176 (2012; Zbl 1271.13047)] introduced a construction which they called a \textit{connected sum}. In general, a connected sum is produced from Cohen-Macaulay local rings $R$, $S$ and $k$ of the same dimension, together with ring homomorphisms $R \stackrel{\epsilon_R}{\longrightarrow} k \stackrel{\epsilon_S}{\longleftarrow} S$. One considers the fibre product $R \times_k S = \{ (r,s) \in R \times S \ | \ \epsilon_R(r) = \epsilon_S(s) \}$ and defines the connected sum of $R$ and $S$ over $k$ as a certain quotient of $R \times_k S$. When $R$ and $S$ are Gorenstein then so is the connected sum, and it has the same dimension. In this paper the authors assume that $R$ and $S$ are Gorenstein Artinian local rings and $k$ is their common residue field. Using a new approach, they look at intrinsic properties of this ring and its defining ideal. Specifically, their goal is to understand when a given Gorenstein Artinian ring can be decomposed as a connected sum. They give conditions for the indecomposability in terms of the Hilbert function and in terms of the number of minimal generators of the defining ideal, leading to their main result, namely equivalent conditions for a given Gorenstein Artinian ring $Q$ to be a connected sum over its residue field. The authors apply their main result to give an understanding of what the components are in case it is decomposable. Next, they give a condition on $Q / \text{soc}(Q)$ which forces $Q$ to be decomposable as a connected sum, and they give conditions under which certain quotients of a decomposable $Q$ are again decomposable. Finally, they show that the indecomposable components appearing in the connected sum decomposition are unique up to isomorphism.