\(F\)-signature and Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity: a combined approach and comparison (Q1744679)

The authors present a unified approach to the study of \(F\)-signature and Hilbert Kunz multiplicity of local rings of positive characteristic. They provide proofs of existence of these limits, their semicontinuity, and their positivity using quite general ``uniform convergence'' techniques. In particular, they give new and simplified proofs of positivity of \(F\)-signature characterizes strongly \(F\)-regular rings, and that two ideals \(I\subseteq J\) have the same Hilbert-Kunz multiplicity if and only if \(J\subseteq I^*\). Furthemore, many results are generalized to the context of pairs and Cartier modules. More importantly, using the uniform convergence technique the authors answer a question of \textit{K.-i. Watanabe} and \textit{K.-i. Yoshida} [J. Algebra 230, No. 1, 295--317 (2000; Zbl 0964.13008)]: the \(F\)-signature is the infimum of relative differences in the Hilbert-Kunz multiplicities of the cofinite ideals in a local ring. One big open question is that, whether the infimum of the relative differences of Hilbert-Kunz multiplicities is actually a minimum. A positive answer to this question will establish that weakly \(F\)-regular and strongly \(F\)-regular are equivalent. The authors provide many partial results to this question.