Maximal Cohen-Macaulay approximations and Serre's condition (Q2352396)

Partially inspired by a result of \textit{K.~Kato} [J. Algebra 318, No. 1, 25--36 (2007; Zbl 1132.13005)], the paper under review gives a characterization of Gorenstein local rings \(R\) satisfying Serre's condition \((\mathrm R_{n-1})\), with \(0\leq n\leq\dim R\), by showing that \((\mathrm R_{n-1})\) holds in \(R\) if and only if every maximal Cohen-Macaulay (MCM) \(R\)-module is isomorphic to a direct summand of a MCM approximation of a Cohen-Macaulay (CM) \(R\)-module of codimension \(n\). Recall from \textit{M. Auslander} and \textit{R.-O. Buchweitz} [Mém. Soc. Math. Fr., Nouv. Sér. No. 38, 5--37 (1989; Zbl 0697.13005)] that (over a CM local ring \(R\)) a MCM \(R\)-module \(X\) is called a MCM approximation of a finitely generated \(R\)-module \(M\) if there exists a short exact sequence of \(R\)-modules \[ 0\rightarrow Y\rightarrow X\rightarrow M\rightarrow0 \] such that \(Y\) has finite projective dimension. To prove their main result, the authors first give a characterization of CM local rings \(R\) satisfying Serre's condition \((\mathrm R_{n-1})\), with \(0\leq n\leq\dim R\), by showing that \((\mathrm R_{n-1})\) holds in \(R\) if and only if every MCM \(R\)-module is isomorphic to a direct summand of an \(n\)-th syzygy of a CM \(R\)-module of codimension \(n\). This result is then applied over a Gorenstein local ring \(R\), to an \(n\)-th syzygy \(\Omega^nM\) of a MCM \(R\)-module \(M\), using the fact that in the stable category of MCM \(R\)-modules, which is a triangulated category, taking a syzygy defines an autoequivalence and taking the Auslander transpose gives a duality.