We develop a local cohomology theory for FI^m-modules, and show that it in many ways mimics the classical theory for multi-graded modules over a polynomial ring. In particular, we define an invariant of FI^m-modules using this local cohomology theory which closely resembles an invariant of multi-graded modules over Cox rings defined by Maclagan and Smith. It is then shown that this invariant behaves almost identically to the invariant of Maclagan and Smith.

A finite EI category is a small category with finitely many morphisms such that every endomorphism is an isomorphism. They include finite groups, finite posets and free categories of finite quivers as special cases. In this paper we consider the representation types of finite EI categories, describe some criteria for finite representation type, and use them to classify the representation types of several classes of finite EI categories with extra properties.

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.

We prove the BMV (Bessis, Moussa, Villani, [1]) conjecture, which states that the function $${t \mapsto \mathop{\rm Tr}\exp(A-tB)}$$ , $${t \geqslant 0}$$ , is the Laplace transform of a positive measure on [0,∞) if$A$and$B$are $${n \times n}$$ Hermitian matrices and$B$is positive semidefinite. A semi-explicit representation for this measure is given.

We propose the notion of partial resolution of a ring, which is by definition the endomorphism ring of a certain generator of the given ring. We prove that the singularity category of the partial resolution is a quotient of the singularity category of the given ring. Consequences and examples are given.