Chern Characters for Twisted Matrix Factorizations and the Vanishing of the Higher Herbrand Difference

Abstract

We develop a theory of ``ad hoc'' Chern characters for twisted matrix factorizations associated to a scheme $X$, a line bundle ${\mathcal L}$, and a regular global section $W \in \Gamma(X, {\mathcal L})$. As an application, we establish the vanishing, in certain cases, of $h_c^R(M,N)$, the higher Herbrand difference, and, $\eta_c^R(M,N)$, the higher codimensional analogue of Hochster's theta pairing, where $R$ is a complete intersection of codimension $c$ with isolated singularities and $M$ and $N$ are finitely generated $R$-modules. Specifically, we prove such vanishing if $R = Q/(f_1, \dots, f_c)$ has only isolated singularities, $Q$ is a smooth $k$-algebra, $k$ is a field of characteristic $0$, the $f_i$'s form a regular sequence, and $c \geq 2$.