Projective modules and complete intersections (Q5967087)

In a widely spread preprint version of a paper, this reviewer [see \textit{S. Mandal}, Math. Z. 227, No. 3, 423-454 (1998)] posed the following question: Question 0.1. Suppose \(A\) is a noetherian commutative ring with \(\dim A=n\). Let \(P\) be a projective \(A\)-module of rank \(n\). Suppose \(P\to J\) is a surjective map, where \(J\) is a locally complete intersection ideal of height \(n\) with \([A/J]=0\) in \(K_0(A)\). Then, is \([P]= [Q\oplus A]\) in \(K_0 (A)\) for some projective \(A\)-module \(Q\)? An anonymous referee communicated a counter example (due to Nori) to this reviewer and the question was removed from the paper. In the paper under review, the author poses another version of the same question by imposing the further restriction that \(J\) is a complete intersection ideal. The results in the paper under review are as follows. Let \(A\) be a noetherian domain with \(\dim A=n\) and let \(P\) be a projective \(A\)-module of rank \(n\) with trivial determinant. Then, 1. if \(n\) even and if \(P\) maps onto a complete intersection ideal of height \(n\) then \([P]= [Q\oplus A]\) in \(K_0(A)\) for some projective \(A\)-module \(Q\); 2. if \(A\) is a Cohen-Macaulay domain, \(n\) is odd and if \([P]= [Q \oplus A]\) in \(K_0(A)\) for some projective \(A\)-module \(Q\) then \(P\) has a unimodular element. Reviewer's remark: The author failed to acknowledge, the reviewer's contribution to the formulation of the problem. This is regrettable because the author and the reviewer had some communications regarding the status of the problem before he arrieved at his version of the problem given in this paper under review. Before the reviewer's work mentioned above, only exact equalities, like \(P= Q\oplus A\), used to be demanded and studied in similar context and that theory is almost entirely due to Mohan Kumar and Murthy.