Generalized local duality, canonical modules, and prescribed bound on projective dimension (Q2674536)

Let \(R\) be a commutative Noetherian ring with nonzero identity. Let \(\mathfrak a\) be an ideal of \(R\) and \(M,N\) two \(R\)-modules. This paper concerns the generalized local cohomology modules \[ \mathrm{H}_{\mathfrak a}^i(M,N):=\underset{n\in \mathbb{N}}{\varinjlim}\ \ \mathrm{Ext}^i_R(M/{\mathfrak{a}}^nM,N). \] Note that the case \(M=R\) corresponds to the usual local cohomology modules \(\mathrm{H}_{\mathfrak a}^i(N)\). The authors establish several results concerning the computation and vanishing of generalized local cohomology modules. Their main achievement is the following characterization of Cohen-Macaulay modules: \textbf{Theorem:} Let \((R,{\mathfrak m})\) be a Cohen-Macaulay local ring admitting a normalized dualizing complex \(D^{\bullet}\). Let \(M\) be a finitely generated \(R\)-module with \(d=\dim_RM\) and \(\text{pd}_RM=p<\infty\). The following are equivalent: \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] M is Cohen-Macaulay. \item[(ii)] \(\mathrm{H}^{p+d}_{\mathfrak m}(M,K(R))\neq 0\). \item[(iii)] \(\mathrm{H}^{p+d}_{\mathfrak m}(M,D^{\bullet})\neq 0\). \end{itemize} (Recall that for a local ring \((R,{\mathfrak m})\) which is a quotient of a Gorenstein local ring \((S,{\mathfrak n})\), the \textit{canonical module} of \(R\) is defined as \(K(R):=\mathrm{Ext}_S^{\dim S-\dim R}(R,S)\).)