Let k be a commutative Noetherian ring and C−− be a locally finite k-linear category equipped with a self-embedding functor of degree 1. We show under a moderate condition that finitely generated torsion representations of C−− are super finitely presented (that is, they have projective resolutions each term of which is finitely generated). In the situation that these self-embedding functors are genetic functors, we give upper bounds for homological degrees of finitely generated torsion modules. These results apply to quite a few categories recently appearing in representation stability theory. In particular, when k is a field of characteristic 0, we obtain another upper bound for homological degrees of finitely generated FI-modules.

We introduce and study mutation of torsion pairs, as a generalization of mutation of cluster tilting objects, rigid objects and maximal rigid objects. It is proved that any mutation of a torsion pair is again a torsion pair. A geometric realization of mutation of torsion pairs in the cluster category of type A_n or A_\infty is given via rotation of Ptolemy diagrams.

It is known that finitely generated FI-modules over a field of characteristic 0 are Noetherian. We generalize this result to the abstract setting of an infinite EI category satisfying certain combinatorial conditions.

The notion of central stability was first formulated for sequences of representations of the symmetric groups by Putman. A categorical reformulation was subsequently given by Church, Ellenberg, Farb, and Nagpal using the notion of FI-modules, where FI is the category of finite sets and injective maps. We extend the notion of central stability from FI to a wide class of categories, and prove that a module is presented in finite degrees if and only if it is centrally stable. We also introduce the notion of d-step central stability, and prove that if the ideal of relations of a category is generated in degrees at most d, then every module presented in finite degrees is d-step centrally stable.

In this paper we describe a machinery for homological calculations of representations of FI_G, and use it to develop a local cohomology theory over any commutative Noetherian ring. As an application, we show that the depth introduced by the second author coincides with a more classical invariant from commutative algebra, and obtain upper bounds of a few important invariants of FI_G-modules in terms of torsion degrees of their local cohomology groups.