Lefschetz extensions, tight closure and big Cohen-Macaulay algebras (Q2480592)

The paper under review studies the question whether a ring of characteristic zero can be embedded in an ultraproduct of rings of positive characteristic in a convenient way. This is an important question with many applications in commutative algebra, probably the most important being the theory of non-standard tight closure theory in characteristic zero and related problems in commutative algebra. The second author has observed in an earlier paper that a non standard Frobenius exists on the complex numbers \(\mathbb{C}\) due to the so-called Lefschetz principle. This was used to define a non-standard tight closure theory for finitely generated algebras over \(\mathbb{C}\) [see \textit{H. Schoutens}, Manuscr. Math. 111, No. 3, 379--412 (2003; Zbl 1082.13005)]. A Lefschetz ring is a characteristic zero ring obtained as an ultraproduct of positive characteristic ring. A field that is a Lefschetz ring is a Lefschetz field. It has been known that any domain of characteristic zero is embeddable in a Lefschetz field, but it is clear that this embedding does not provide insight into the ideal theory of the domain by means of the Lefschetz field. One of the important contributions of the authors is to prove in this paper the following Theorem. For each equicharacteristic zero Noetherian local ring \(R\) there exists a faithfully flat embedding of \(R\) into a local Lefschetz ring \(\mathcal{D}(R)\). This theorem in fact works for semilocal rings as well and it has certain functorial properties. The paper is organized in two parts. Part I deals with the long proof of the above theorem. There are many technical issues that the authors deal with and they rely in part on results of \textit{C. Rotthaus} of Artin Approximations [Invent. Math. 88, 39--63 (1987; Zbl 0614.13014)]. The authors also show how ring theoretic properties of \(R\) transfer to the terms of the ultraproduct \(\mathcal{D}(R)\). Part II deals with applications of the main result of the paper. The non-standard tight closure theory for any equicharacteristic zero ring is developed around the Frobenius like homomorphisms \(\mathbb{F}_\infty\) that exists on \(\mathcal{D}(R)\). The second application is the construction of a big Cohen-Macaulay algebra over a characteristic zero Noetherian local ring. This extends a similar construction of the second author for finitely generated algebras over a field [Ill. J. Math. 48, No. 1, 131--150 (2004; Zbl 1045.13005)]. The paper is an important contribution to commutative algebra, particularly to tight closure theory and related questions.