Vasconcelos' conjecture on the conormal module (Q2073767)

The paper under review deals with a longstanding conjecture in commutative algebra due to W. Vasconcelos: let \(R\) be a noetherian ring, and \(S=R/I\). If both \(\mathrm{pdim}_R(I)<\infty\) and \(\mathrm{pdim}_S(I/I^2)<\infty\), then \(I\) is locally generated by a regular sequence [\textit{W. V. Vasconcelos}, Commun. Algebra 6, 1801--1809 (1978; Zbl 0393.13002)]. Initial evidence for this conjecture was a result of Ferrand and Vasconcelos, stating that if \(\mathrm{pdim}_R(I)<\infty\), then \(\mathrm{pdim}_S(I/I^2)=0\) if and only if \(I\) is locally generated by a regular sequence. Also, the case \(\mathrm{pdim}_S(I/I^2) = 1\) was known thanks to Vasconcelos and Gulliksen, as well as some cases in which the ideal has low height. Finally, the graded case over a field of characteristic zero had been proven by \textit{L. L. Avramov} and \textit{J. Herzog} [Invent. Math. 117, No. 1, 75--88 (1994; Zbl 0813.13024)]. In the paper under review the author solves this important conjecture in full generality. He also obtains an analogous result involving finitness of the projective dimension over \(S\) of the first Koszul homology module \(H_1(I;R)\), instead of that of the conormal module. Ferrand proved that when \(S\) is a generically separable algebra, essentially of finite type over a field \(K\), then \(S\) is a reduced complete intersection if and only if the module of Kähler differentials \(\Omega_{S|K}\) has projective dimension at most one [\textit{D. Ferrand}, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. A 264, 427--428 (1967; Zbl 0154.03801)]. In analogy with the above, Vasconcelos conjectured that \(S\) is a reduced complete intersection if and only if \(\Omega_{S|K}\) has finite projective dimension. In this paper the author further proves that this conjecture is true whenever the Eisenbud-Mazur conjecture holds, even just for quasi-Gorenstein rings (for the latter one uses a result due to Platte). More generally, the authors proves the following: let \(S\) be a local algebra which is essentially of finite type and has finite flat dimension over a commutative noetherian ring \(K\); if \(S\) has no non-trivial evolutions, and \(\mathrm{pdim}_S(\Omega_{S|K})<\infty\), then \(S\) is a complete intersection over \(K\).