Tensor complexes: multilinear free resolutions constructed from higher tensors (Q388773)

The paper under review proposes a construction that generalizes from a multilinear point of view the most fundamental complexes of free modules over a commutative ring (like the Koszul complex, which is constructed from a vector, or the Eagon-Northcott and Buchsbaum-Rim complexes, which are constructed from a matrix) starting from an arbitrary higher order tensor. A connection between tensors and free complexes has previously been observed in special cases by Gelfand-Kapranov-Zelevinsky and Weyman that uses a free complex to express hyperdeterminants of the boundary format. This is a special case of the construction proposed in the paper under review. Tensor complexes extend another important class of free resolutions: pure resolutions of Cohen-Macaulay modules. Such resolutions are central objects in Boij-Söderberg theory, as they provide the extremal rays of the cone of Betti diagrams. The authors show that there are an infinite number of different tensor complexes whose Betti diagrams lie on any such extremal ray. Moreover, they show that each Eisenbud-Schreyer pure resolution is obtained by taking hyperplane sections of a tensor complex, thus providing the first explicit description of the differentials of these complexes.