We give a descent result for formal smoothness having interesting applications: we deduce that quasiexcellence descends along flat local homomorphisms of finite type, we greatly improve Kunz’s characterization of regular local rings by means of the Frobenius homomorphisms as well as André and Radu relativization of this result, etc. In the second part of the paper, we study a similar question for the complete intersection property instead of formal smoothness, giving also some applications.

We investigate symbolic and regular powers of monomial ideals. For a square-free monomial ideal I ⊆ 𝕜[x 0, … , xn ] we show that for all positive integers m, t and r, where e is the big-height of I and . This captures two conjectures (r = 1 and r = e): one of Harbourne and Huneke, and one of Bocci et al. We also introduce the symbolic polyhedron of a monomial ideal and use this to explore symbolic powers of non-square-free monomial ideals.

Building on coprincipal mesoprimary decomposition [Kahle and Miller, Decompositions of commutative monoid congruences and binomial ideals, Algebra and Number Theory 8 (2014), 1297–1364], we combinatorially construct an irreducible decomposition of any given binomial ideal. In a parallel manner, for congruences in commutative monoids we construct decompositions that are direct combinatorial analogues of binomial irreducible decompositions, and for binomial ideals we construct decompositions into ideals that are as irreducible as possible while remaining binomial. We provide an example of a binomial ideal that is not an intersection of irreducible binomial ideals, thus answering a question of Eisenbud and Sturmfels [Binomial ideals, Duke Math. J. 84 (1996), 1–45].

The elasticity of an atomic integral domain is, in some sense, a measure of how far the domain is from being a half-factorial domain. We consider the relationship between the elasticity of a domain R and the elasticity of its polynomial ring R[x]. For example, if R has at least one atom, a sufficient condition for the polynomial ring R[x] to have elasticity 1 is that every non-constant irreducible polynomial f ∈ R[x] be irreducible in K[x]. We will determine the integral domains R whose polynomial rings satisfy this condition.

We apply the concept of braiding sequences to link polynomials to show polynomial growth bounds on the derivatives of the Jones polynomial evaluated on S 1 and of the Brandt–Lickorish–Millett–Ho polynomial evaluated on [–2, 2] on alternating and positive knots of given genus. For positive links, boundedness criteria for the coefficients of the Jones, HOMFLY and Kauffman polynomials are derived. (This is a continuation of the paper ‘Applications of braiding sequences. I’: Commun. Contemp. Math.12(5) (2010), 681–726.)

We prove that the Hilbert–Kunz multiplicity is upper semi-continuous in F-finite rings and algebras of essentially finite type over an excellent local ring.

The (usual) Caldero–Chapoton map is a map from the set of objects of a category to a Laurent polynomial ring over the integers. In the case of a cluster category, it maps reachable indecomposable objects to the corresponding cluster variables in a cluster algebra. This formalizes the idea that the cluster category is a categorification of the cluster algebra. The definition of the Caldero–Chapoton map requires the category to be 2-Calabi-Yau, and the map depends on a cluster-tilting object in the category. We study a modified version of the Caldero–Chapoton map which requires only that the category have a Serre functor and depends only on a rigid object in the category. It is well known that the usual Caldero–Chapoton map gives rise to so-called friezes, for instance, Conway–Coxeter friezes. We show that the modified Caldero–Chapoton map gives rise to what we call generalized friezes and that, for cluster categories of Dynkin type A, it recovers the generalized friezes introduced by combinatorial means in recent work by the authors and Bessenrodt.

A companion basis for a quiver Γ mutation equivalent to a simply-laced Dynkin quiver is a subset of the associated root system which is a $\mathbb{Z}$-basis for the integral root lattice with the property that the non-zero inner products of pairs of its elements correspond to the edges in the underlying graph of Γ. It is known in type A (and conjectured for all simply-laced Dynkin cases) that any companion basis can be used to compute the dimension vectors of the finitely generated indecomposable modules over the associated cluster-tilted algebra. Here, we present a procedure for explicitly constructing a companion basis for any quiver of mutation type A or D.

The K-theoretical aspect of the commutative Bezout rings is established using the arithmetical properties of the Bezout rings in order to obtain a ring of all Smith normal forms of matrices over the Bezout ring. The internal structure and basic properties of such rings are discussed as well as their presentations by the Witt vectors. In a case of a commutative von Neumann regular rings the famous Grothendieck group K 0(R) obtains the alternative description.

Consider a smooth quasi-projective variety $X$ equipped with a $\mathbb{C}^{\ast }$-action, and a regular function $f:X\rightarrow \mathbb{C}$ which is $\mathbb{C}^{\ast }$-equivariant with respect to a positive weight action on the base. We prove the purity of the mixed Hodge structure and the hard Lefschetz theorem on the cohomology of the vanishing cycle complex of $f$ on proper components of the critical locus of $f$, generalizing a result of Steenbrink for isolated quasi-homogeneous singularities. Building on work by Kontsevich and Soibelman, Nagao, and Efimov, we use this result to prove the quantum positivity conjecture for cluster mutations for all quivers admitting a positively graded nondegenerate potential. We deduce quantum positivity for all quivers of rank at most 4; quivers with nondegenerate potential admitting a cut; and quivers with potential associated to triangulations of surfaces with marked points and nonempty boundary.

We study the space of linear difference equations with periodic coefficients and (anti)periodic solutions. We show that this space is isomorphic to the space of tame frieze patterns and closely related to the moduli space of configurations of points in the projective space. We define the notion of a combinatorial Gale transform, which is a duality between periodic difference equations of different orders. We describe periodic rational maps generalizing the classical Gauss map.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. We present first a vanishing theorem for families of linear series with base ideal being a fat points ideal. We then apply this result in order to give a partial proof of a conjecture raised by Bocci, Harbourne and Huneke concerning containment relations between ordinary and symbolic powers of planar point ideals.

Fomin–Zelevinsky conjectured that in any cluster algebra, the cluster monomials are linearly independent and that the exchange graph and cluster complex are independent of the choice of coefficients. We confirm these conjectures for all skew-symmetric cluster algebras.

We construct two bases for each cluster algebra coming from a triangulated surface without punctures. We work in the context of a coefficient system coming from a full-rank exchange matrix, such as principal coefficients.

To each tagged triangulation of a surface with marked points and non-empty boundary we associate a quiver with potential in such a way that whenever we apply a flip to a tagged triangulation the Jacobian algebra of the quiver with potential (QP) associated to the resulting tagged triangulation is isomorphic to the Jacobian algebra of the QP obtained by mutating the QP of the original one. Furthermore, we show that any two tagged triangulations are related by a sequence of flips compatible with QP-mutation. We also prove that, for each of the QPs constructed, the ideal of the non-completed path algebra generated by the cyclic derivatives is admissible and the corresponding quotient is isomorphic to the Jacobian algebra. These results, which generalize some of the second author’s previous work for ideal triangulations, are then applied to prove properties of cluster monomials, like linear independence, in the cluster algebra associated to the given surface by Fomin, Shapiro and Thurston (with an arbitrary system of coefficients).

We prove a conjecture of Kontsevich, which asserts that the iterations of the non-commutative rational map Fr:(x,y)→(xyx−1,(1+yr)x−1) are given by non-commutative Laurent polynomials with non-negative integer coefficients.

The face ring of a homology manifold (without boundary) modulo a generic system of parameters is studied. Its socle is computed and it is verified that a particular quotient of this ring is Gorenstein. This fact is used to prove that the algebraic g-conjecture for spheres implies all enumerative consequences of its far-reaching generalization (due to Kalai) to manifolds. A special case of Kalai’s conjecture is established for homology manifolds that have a codimension-two face whose link contains many vertices.

It is well known that for a ring with identity the Brown-McCoy radical is the maximal small ideal. However, in certain subrings of complete matrix rings, which we call structural matrix rings, the maximal small and minimal essential ideals coincide.

In this paper we characterize a class of commutative and a class of non-commutative rings for which this coincidence occurs, namely quotients of Prüfer domains and structural matrix rings over Brown-McCoy semisimple rings. A similarity between these two classes is obtained.

This paper gives variants of results from classical algebraic geometry and commutative algebra for quadratic algebras with conjugation. Quadratic algebras are essentially two-dimensional algebras with identity over commutative rings with identity, on which a natural operation of conjugation may be defined. We define the ring of conjugate polynomials over a quadratic algebra, and define c-varieties. In certain cases a close correspondence between standard varieties and c-varieties is demonstrated, and we establish a correspondence between conjugate and standard polynomials, which leads to variants of the Hilbert Nullstellensatz if the commutativering is an algebraically closed field. These results may be applied to automated Euclidean geometry theorem proving.

Let M be a commutative cancellative atomic monoid. We consider the behaviour of the asymptotic length functions and on M. If M is finitely generated and reduced, then we present an algorithm for the computation of both and where x is a nonidentity element of M. We also explore the values that the functions and can attain when M is a Krull monoid with torsion divisor class group, and extend a well-known result of Zaks and Skula by showing how these values can be used to characterize when M is half-factorial.