Homological Questions in Local Algebra

This book presents an account of several conjectures arising in commutative algebra from the pioneering work of Serre and Auslander-Buchsbaum. The approach is via Hochster's 'Big Cohen-Macaulay modules', though the complementary view point of Peskine-Szpiro and Roberts, who study the homology of certain complexes, is not neglected. Various refinements of Hochster's construction, obtained in collaboration with Bartijn, are included.