Relative Ext groups, resolutions, and Schanuel classes. (Q953935)

Given a ring \(R\) and an \(R\)-module \(M\), the following conditions are equivalent: (\(E_{M,n}\)) \(\text{Ext}_R^{n+1}(M,-)=0\). (\(R_{M,n}\)) \(M\) has a projective resolution of length \(n\). (\(S_{M,n}\)) Any \(n\)th syzygy module of \(M\) is stably equivalent to the zero module. The natural question arises whether these conditions imply each other in the relative setting. More precisely, one chooses a suitable class of relative projectives, assuming there are enough of them, and defines relative projective resolutions, relative Ext-functors, and relative syzygy modules. It is clear that the second and third conditions still imply the first one. On the other hand, all other implications fail in general. In this well-written paper the author provides various conditions guaranteeing those implications. Similar results hold for the contravariant Ext-functor. The paper also provides a convenient reference diagram of the relevant results.