The cone of Betti tables over three non-collinear points in the plane (Q502913)

For a graded Noetherian commutative ring \(R\) and a finitely generated graded \(R\)-module \(M\) with minimal graded free resolution \(F_{\bullet}:F_{0}\leftarrow F_{1}\leftarrow \dots\), let \(F_{i}=\bigoplus _{j\in \mathbb{Z}}R(-j)^{\beta _{ij}^{R}(M)}\), where \(\beta _{ij}^{R}(M)\) represents the minimal number of generators of \(F_{i}\) in degree \(j\). Let \(V\) be the space of column finite matrices with entries in \(Q\), and define the Betti diagram of \(M\), denoted \(\beta^{R}(M)\), to be the matrix whose entries are given by \(\beta^{R}(M)_{ij}=\beta_{ij}^{R}(M)\). Adopting the standard Betti diagram convention, we display \(\beta^{R}(M)\) writing \[ \beta^{R}(M)=\begin{bmatrix} \beta _{00}^{R}(M) & \beta _{11}^{R}(M) & \beta _{22}^{R}(M) & \dots \\ \beta _{01}^{R}(M) & \beta _{12}^{R}(M) & \beta _{23}^{R}(M) & \dots \end{bmatrix}. \] The cone of Betti diagrams over \(R\) is defined to be \(B_{Q}(R)=\{\sum_{M}a_{M} \beta ^{R}(M): a_{M}\in Q_{\geq 0},\text{ with only finitely many }a_{M}\text{ nonzero}\} \subseteq V\). Here \(Q_{\geq 0}\) denotes the set of non-negative rational numbers, and \(B_{Q}(R)\) is the set of finite sums for all \(R\)-modules \(M\). \textit{M. Boij} and \textit{J. Söderberg} [J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 78, No. 1, 85--106 (2008; Zbl 1189.13008)] conjectured that the cone of Betti tables derived from Cohen-Macaulay modules (of a fixed codimension) is spanned by Betti tables derived from pure resolutions. This conjecture was verified and improved by \textit{D. Eisenbud} and \textit{F.-O. Schreyer} [Abel Symposia 6, 35--48 (2011; Zbl 1248.14058)] and \textit{G. Fløystad} [in: Progress in commutative algebra 1. Combinatorics and homology. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 1--54 (2012; Zbl 1260.13020)]. The authors of the paper under review describe the cone of Betti diagrams \(B_{Q}(B)\) of the homogeneous coordinate ring of the three points \([1:0:0],\) \([0:1:0]\) and \([0:0:1]\), that is the ring \(B=k[x,y,z]/(xy,yz,xz)\), where \(k\) is a field. They compute \(\beta _{ij}^{B}(M)\) as \(\dim_{k}(\mathrm{Tor}_{i}^{B}(M,k)\) and study maximal Cohen-Macaulay modules, as the long-term behavior of a minimal free resolution is reduced to the study of minimal free resolutions of maximal Cohen-Macaulay modules. They also describe the cone of Betti diagrams \(B_{Q}^{f}(B)=\) \(B_{Q}(B)\) for modules of finite length. This interesting work is reminiscent of the highly readable paper of \textit{C. Berkesch} et al. [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 216, No. 10, 2256--2268 (2012; Zbl 1267.13025)], from which the introduction to Betti tables is taken, in that it studies a factor ring of a polynomial ring, but Berkesch et al. were concerned with hypersurfaces.