English

Proof of de Smit's conjecture: a freeness criterion

Commutative Algebra 2019-02-20 v2 Algebraic Geometry Number Theory

Abstract

Let ABA\to B be a morphism of Artin local rings with the same embedding dimension. We prove that any AA-flat BB-module is BB-flat. This freeness criterion was conjectured by de Smit in 1997 and improves Diamond's Theorem 2.1 from his 1997 paper "The Taylor-Wiles construction and multiplicity one". We also prove that if there is a nonzero AA-flat BB-module, then ABA\to B is flat and is a relative complete intersection (i.e. B/mABB/\mathfrak{m}_AB is a complete intersection). Then we explain how this result allows to simplify Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem: we do not need the so-called "Taylor-Wiles systems" anymore.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1607.02044,
  title  = {Proof of de Smit's conjecture: a freeness criterion},
  author = {Sylvain Brochard},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.02044},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

final version, to appear in Compositio Mathematica