Relative Singularity Categories and Gorenstein-Projective Modules

Abstract

We introduce the notion of relative singularity category with respect to any self-orthogonal subcategory $ω$ of an abelian category. We introduce the Frobenius category of $ω$-Cohen-Macaulay objects, and under some reasonable conditions, we show that the stable category of $ω$-Cohen-Macaulay objects is triangle-equivalent to the relative singularity category. As applications, we relate the stable category of (unnecessarily finitely-generated) Gorenstein-projective modules with singularity categories of rings. We prove that for a Gorenstein ring, the stable category of Gorenstein-projective modules is compactly generated and its compact objects coincide with finitely-generated Gorenstein-projective modules up to direct summands.