Necessary conditions for the depth formula over Cohen-Macaulay local rings (Q392449)

Let \((R,{\mathfrak m}, k)\) be a local ring and let \(M\) and \(N\) be finitely generated nonzero \(R\)-modules. We say the pair \((M, N)\) satisfies the depth formula provided: \[ \text{depth}(M) + \text{depth}(N) = \text{depth}(R) + \text{depth}(M \bigotimes_R N). \] This useful formula is not true in general, as one can see by taking \(R\) to have depth at least \(1\) and \(M = N = k\). The depth formula was first studied by Auslander in 1961 for finitely generated modules over regular local rings. More precisely, if \(R\) is a local ring, Auslander proved that \(M\) and \(N\) satisfy the depth formula provided \(M\) has finite projective dimension and \(\text{Tor}^R_i(M, N) = 0\) for all \(i \geq 1\). Three decades later Huneke and Wiegand proved that the depth formula holds for \(M\) and \(N\) over complete intersection rings \(R\) provided \(\text{Tor}^R_i(M, N) = 0\) for all \(i \geq 1\), even if \(M\) does not have finite projective dimension. The authors investigate some of the necessary conditions for the depth formula \(\text{depth}(M) + \text{depth}(N) = \text{depth}(R) + \text{depth}(M \bigotimes_R N)\) to hold. We show that, under certain conditions, \(M\) and \(N\) satisfy the depth formula if and only if \(\text{Tor}^R_i(M, N) = 0\) for all \(i \geq 1\). They also examine the relationship between the depth of \(M \bigotimes_R N)\) and the vanishing of \(\text{Ext}\) modules with various applications.