Reducing system of parameters and the Cohen-Macaulay property (Q2384688)

The notion of a reducing system of parameters was introduced half-a-century ago by \textit{M. Auslander} and \textit{D. Buchsbaum} [Ann. Math. (2) 68, 625--657 (1958; Zbl 0092.03902)] to simplify the formulas for multiplicity of a module. In the paper under review the authors give an essentially equivalent definition and investigate the properties of such systems. For example, they give a simple characterization of Cohen-Macaulay modules in terms of reducing systems. They also show that if a proper part of a system of parameters for a finitely generated module generates the same ideal as a part of a reducing system, then the original sequence extends to a reducing system. This implies that any permutation of a part of a reducing system is again a part of a reducing system.