The set of semidualizing complexes is a nontrivial metric space (Q868857)

Let \((R, \mathfrak m)\) denote a local ring. A homologically finite \(R\)-complex \(K\) is called a semi-dualizing complex whenever the natural homothety homomorphism \(K \to \text{R Hom}_R(K, K)\) is a quasi-isomorphism. Note that a semi-dualizing complex is a dualizing complex provided it has finite injective dimension. The set of shift-isomorphism classes of semidualizing \(R\)-complexes is denoted by \({\mathcal S} (R).\) Moreover \([K]\) denotes the class of \(K\) in \({\mathcal S} (R).\) For two elements \([K], [L] \in {\mathcal S} (R)\) the authors write \([K] \leq [L]\) whenever \(L\) is \(K\)-reflexive, i.e. \(\text{R Hom}_R(L,K)\) is homologically bounded and the biduality homomorphism \(L \to \text{R Hom}_R(\text{R Hom}_R(L,K),K)\) is a quasi-isomorphism. In fact this definition does not depend upon the particular choice of the representative \(K\) in its class. For two elements \([K], [L] \in {\mathcal S} (R)\) with \([K] \leq [L]\) the authors define \(\sigma_R([K],[L])\) as the curvature of the complex \(\text{R Hom}_R(L,K)\) as it was introduced by \textit{L. L. Avramov} [Math. Res. Lett. 3, No. 3, 319--328 (1996; Zbl 0867.13003)] in order to describe the asymptotic nature of Betti numbers. Let \(\Gamma(R)\) denote the directed graph whose vertex set is \({\mathcal S} (R)\) and whose edges correspond to the inequality \( \leq .\) A route from \([K]\) to \([L]\) is a subgraph of \(\Gamma (R)\) connecting \([K], [L]\) in both directions. Its length it defined as the sum over all \(\sigma_R\) of the edges of the route. The most surprising fact -- shown by the authors -- is that the distance function \(\text{dist}_R([K], [L])\) defined as the infimum over the length of all routes from \([K]\) to \([L]\) in \(\Gamma (R)\) is a non-trivial metric on \({\mathcal S} (R).\) There are further results about the behaviour of the metric under change of rings. Moreover, if \(R\) admits a dualizing complex \(D,\) then the map \({\mathcal S} (R) \to {\mathcal S} (R)\) defined by \([K] \mapsto [\text{R Hom}_R(K,D)]\) is an isometric involution.