Uniform annihilators of local cohomology (Q854921)

Let \(R\) denote a commutative noetherian ring. Let \(R^o\) denote the complement of the union of minimal prime ideals. The author investigates the uniform annihilation of the local cohomology modules \(H^i_I(R), I \) an ideal, in the sense of \textit{C. Huneke} [Invent. Math. 107, 203--223 (1992; Zbl 0756.13001)]. To be more precise, an element \(x \in R^o\) is called a uniform cohomological annihilator of \(R,\) if for every maximal ideal \(\mathfrak m, x\) kills \(H^i_{\mathfrak m}(R)\) for all \(i < \text{ height } \mathfrak m.\) The element \(x \in R^o\) is called a strong uniform cohomological annihilator, if \(x\) is a uniform local cohomological annihilator of \(R_{\mathfrak p}\) for every prime ideal \(\mathfrak p\) of \(R.\) It has been discovered by \textit{M. Hochster} and \textit{C. Huneke} [Ann. Math. (2) 135, No. 1, 53--89 (1992; Zbl 0753.13003)], that the existence of a uniform cohomological annihilator is of importance for the existence of big Cohen-Macaulay algebras and by Huneke [loc. cit.] for the uniform Artin-Rees Theorem. Assume that \(\dim R < \infty.\) Then the author proves the equivalence of: (i) \(R\) has a uniform local cohomological annihilator. (ii) \(R\) is locally equidimensional, and \(R/\mathfrak p\) has a uniform local cohomological annihilator for each minimal prime \(\mathfrak p\) of \(R.\) In particular (i) implies that \(R\) is locally equidimensional and universally catenary. As an application the author gives a partial positive answer to a conjecture of Huneke [loc. cit.]: Let \(R\) be a locally equidimensional excellent ring of dimension \(\leq 5.\) Then \(R\) has a uniform local cohomological annihilator.