Split bounded extension algebras and Han's conjecture (Q785760)

The authors show that the class of finite-dimensional algebras that satisfy Han's conjecture is closed under split extensions. We now explain this. For the authors of this paper, an algebra with finite global dimension is called smooth. For example, polynomial rings over finite global dimension rings are smooth. Smoothness is actually an appropriate word because a local ring is regular iff it has finite global dimension. Han's conjecture asserts that if \(A\) is a finite-dimensional algebra over a field then \(A\) is smooth if and only if \(H_n(A,A) = 0\) for \(n\) sufficiently large, where \(H_n\) is the Hochschild homology functor. A shadow that there is a relation amongst these concepts can already be seen from the Villamayor-Zelinksy theorem. Special cases for this conjecture are known to be true, as surveyed in the current paper under review. In particular, the conjecture is in fact known to be true for commutative finitely-generated algebras. The authors contribute towards an understanding of Han's conjecture by studying split extension algebras over a field \(k\). These are \(k\)-algebras of the form \(A = B\oplus M\) where \(B\) is a subalgebra of \(A\) and \(M\) is a two-sided ideal of \(A\). Thus, a split extension algebra is a module that splits as a submodule and an ideal. So, \(A\) here would be an extension of \(B\). Some of the theory constructed in this paper on split extension algebras, and the authors' construction of a relative bar resolution, allow them to construct a Jacobi-Zariski long exact sequence for Hochschild homology. The authors then use this Jacobi-Zariski sequence to prove the following (in the terminology above): suppose \(A\) is finite-dimensional. Then \(A\) satisfies Han's conjecture if and only if \(B\) satisfies Han's conjecture.