New classes of examples satisfying the three matrix analog of Gerstenhaber's theorem (Q1799019)

Let \(k\) be a field and let \(M_d(k)\) denote the set of \(d\times d\) matrices with entries in \(k\). Consider the unital \(k\)-algebra generated by \(n\) pairwise commuting matrices in \(M_d(k)\). In [Ann. Math. (2) 73, 324--348 (1961; Zbl 0168.28201)], \textit{M. Gerstenhaber} proved that for \(n=2\), the \(k\)-dimension of such algebra is at most \(d\). In general, it is known that for \(n\geq 4\), the \(k\)-dimension of the algebra may exceed \(d\). The paper under review studies the open case of \(n=3\) by providing an equivalent formulation. Let \(S\) denote the polynomial ring \(k[x_1, \cdots, x_n]\). The authors first prove that the \(k\)-algebra generated by \(n\) pairwise commuting matrices in \(M_d(k)\) is a finite-dimensional vector space of dimension at most \(d\) if and only if for all \(S\)-modules \(N\) which are finite-dimensional over \(k\), \[ S/\text{Ann}(N)\leq \dim N. \tag{1} \] They then show that for \(n=3\), inequality (1) holds for every \(S\)-module \(N\) that is either cyclic over \(S\), or is a local module with socle dimension 1 over \(k\), or is an extension of \(S\)-modules \(0\to S/I\to N\to S/\mathfrak{m}\to 0\), where \(\mathfrak{m}\) is a maximal ideal in \(S\). They also show that the inequality (1) holds for all \(S\)-modules that can be decomposed as a finite direct sum of modules of the forms mentioned above.