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Reduction techniques for the finitistic dimension

In this paper we develop new reduction techniques for testing the finiteness of the finitistic dimension of a finite dimensional algebra over a field. Viewing the latter algebra as a quotient of a path algebra, we propose two operations on the quiver of the algebra, namely arrow removal and vertex removal. The former gives rise to cleft extensions and the latter to recollements. These two operations provide us new practical methods to detect algebras of finite finitistic dimension. We illustrate our methods with many examples.


Introduction
One of the longstanding open problems in representation theory of finite dimensional algebras is the Finitistic Dimension Conjecture. Let Λ be a finite dimensional algebra over a field. The finitistic dimension fin. dim Λ of Λ is defined as the supremum of the projective dimension of all finitely generated right modules of finite projective dimension. The finitistic dimension conjecture asserts that the latter supremum is finite, i.e. fin. dim Λ < ∞. Our aim in this paper is to present some new reduction techniques for detecting the finiteness of the finitistic dimension.
The finitistic dimension conjecture has a long and interesting history. Already in the beginning of the sixties, it became apparent that the finitistic dimension provides a measure of the complexity of the module category. In the commutative noetherian case, it has been proved basically by Auslander and Buchbaum [1] that the finitistic dimension equals the depth of the ring. It was Bass that emphasized the role of this homological dimension in the non-commutative setup. For more on the history of the finitistic dimension conjecture we refer to Zimmermann-Huisgen's paper [28].
The finitistic dimension conjecture is known to be related with other important problems concerning the homological behaviour and the structure theory of the module category of a finite dimensional algebra. In the hierarchy of the homological conjectures in representation theory, the finitistic dimension conjecture plays a central role. More precisely, we have the following diagram which shows that almost all other homological conjectures for finite dimensional algebras are implied by the finitistic dimension conjecture (FDC) : We write (SNC) for the strong Nakayama conjecture, (NC) for the Nakayama conjecture, (ARC) for the Auslander-Reiten conjecture, (WTC) for the Wakamatsu tilting conjecture, (NuC) for the Nunke condition and (GSC) for the Gorenstein symmetry conjecture. The above diagram is not complete, we refer to [2,11,12,25] and references therein for more information on the hierarchy of homological conjectures.
In the middle of the seventies, Fossum-Griffith-Reiten [6] proved for a triangular matrix algebra Λ = ( R 0 M S ) that the finitistic dimension of Λ is less or equal of the finitistic dimensions of R and S plus one. Thus, for this particular class of algebras we can test finiteness of the finitistic dimension by computing the finitistic dimension of the corner algebras. This result should be considered as the first reduction technique for the finitistic dimension. Subsequently, but almost twenty years after, Happel [12] showed that if a finite dimensional algebra Λ admits a recollement of bounded derived categories (D b (mod-Λ ′′ ), D b (mod-Λ), D b (mod-Λ ′ )), where Λ ′ and Λ ′′ are finite dimensional algebras, then the finitistic dimension of Λ is finite if and only if the same holds for Λ ′ and Λ ′′ . Clearly this is again a reduction technique for the finitistic dimension. However, it is in general a difficult problem to decompose the bounded derived category of an algebra in such a recollement situation. On the other hand, Happel's technique can be considered as a natural extension of Fossum-Griffith-Reiten's result, since triangular matrix algebras (under mild conditions on the bimodule) induces a recollement at the level of bounded derived categories.
In the beginning of the nineties, Fuller and Saorin [7] introduced the idea of illuminating simples of projective dimension less or equal to one. In particular, picking the idempotent f corresponding to such a simple and considering the idempotent e = 1 − f , they showed that fin. dim eΛe < ∞ implies fin. dim Λ < ∞. This is clearly a reduction technique for the finitistic dimension. We extend this result by putting it in the general context of recollements of abelian categories. Clearly, this result is the predecessor of the vertex removal operation. More recently, Xi in a series of papers [23][24][25][26] introduced various methods for detecting finiteness of the finitistic dimension. It should be noted that Xi has connected the finitistic dimension of an algebra of the form eΛe, where e is an idempotent, with other homological dimensions, for instance, finiteness of the global dimension of Λ (less or equal to four), finiteness of the representation dimension of Λ/ΛeΛ (less or equal to three) and several other interesting relations. On the other hand, he considers pairs of algebras (B, A) where A is an extension of B and the Jacobson radical rad(B) is a left ideal in A. Then, under some further conditions he shows that fin. dim A < ∞ implies fin. dim B < ∞. Roughly speaking, Xi's philosophy is to control the finitistic dimension by certain extension of algebras. Clearly, this machinery is again another reduction technique for testing the finiteness of the finitistic dimension.
At this point we would like to mention Xi's comment [23] on the available techniques that we have for the finitistic dimension. Very briefly, he writes that "not many practical methods are available so far to detect algebras of finite finitistic dimension and it is necessary to develop some methods even for some concrete examples". The central point for us in this work is exactly the lack of practical methods to estimate the finitistic dimension of an algebra.
Let Λ be a finite dimensional algebra over an algebraically closed field k. Thus Λ is Morita equivalent to an admissible quotient kQ/I of a path algebra kQ over k. Moreover, if e is a trivial path in kQ, then v e denotes the corresponding vertex in Q. Our approach on reducing the finitistic dimension is based on two operations on the quiver of the algebra. It is natural to consider how the vertices and the arrows contribute to the finitistic dimension. The idea is to remove those that don't contribute and thus the finiteness of the finitistic dimension is reduced to a simpler algebra at least in terms of size. This is clearly a practical method that can be applied easily to any algebra.
Let a be an arrow in Q, which does not occur in a minimal generating set of I, and consider the arrow removal Γ = Λ/ a . The abstract categorical framework of this operation is the concept of cleft extension of abelian categories. Our first main result provides a ring theoretical characterization of the arrow removal operation. In addition, it reduces the finiteness of the finitistic dimension of Λ to the one of the arrow removal. The first part of Theorem A is proved in Proposition 4.5. The second part is stated in Theorem 4.7 and follows from Theorem 4.1 (a general result on the finitistic dimension for cleft extensions) and Proposition 4.6 (a result on the precise properties of the arrow removal as a cleft extension).
Theorem A. (Arrow Removal) Let Λ = kQ/I be an admissible quotient of a path algebra kQ over a field k. Let a : v e −→ v f be an arrow in Q and define Γ = Λ/ a the arrow removal. The following hold. We would like to mention that the arrow removal operation has been considered in the work of Diracca-Koenig [5]. Their focus was removing arrows in a monomial relation and homological reductions towards the strong no loop conjecture.
Our second operation is the vertex removal. Let Λ be a quotient of a path algebra as above and take e a sum of vertices. Then the vertices in the quiver of eΛe correspond to the ones occurring in e and therefore the vertices occurring in 1 − e are removed. The transition from Λ to eΛe is what we call vertex removal. The abstract categorical framework of this operation is the concept of recollements of abelian categories. In our second main result we show that removing the vertices which correspond to simples of finite injective dimension provides a reduction for the finitistic dimension. This is our second new practical method for testing the finiteness of the finitistic dimension. The result is basically proved in Theorem 5.8 in the setting of recollements of abelian categories.
Theorem B. (Vertex Removal) Let Λ be a finite dimensional algebra over an algebraically closed field and e an idempotent element. Then The above result shows an interesting interplay between the finitistic dimension and the injective dimension of some simples. Recently, a similar connection was observed by Rickard [21]. In particular, he showed that if the injectives over a finite dimensional algebra generate its unbounded derived category, then the finitistic dimension conjecture holds.
We have already mentioned several times the practical issue of our main results. To see this, we advice the reader to look at the last section where we present several examples where our methods can be applied without much effort. We have also tested our techniques on some known examples from the literature.
Our reduction techniques can be applied to any finite dimensional algebra over an algebraically closed field. Given such an algebra, we can iterate the reductions (vertex and arrow removal) to obtain a reduced algebra, see Definition 6.1. As a consequence of our work, to prove or disprove the finitistic dimension conjecture it suffices to consider the class of reduced algebras.
The contents of the paper section by section are as follows. Sections 2 and 3 are devoted for the abstract categorical framework of the arrow and vertex removal operations on a quiver. In Section 2 we study cleft extensions of abelian categories. More precisely, we recall and prove several properties of cleft extensions that are used later in Section 4. We analyze carefully the associated endofuctors that this data carries and we settle the necessary conditions on a cleft extension that the arrow removal operation requires.
In Section 3 we study recollements of abelian categories. We introduce a relative (injective) homological dimension in a recollement situation and show that it provides interesting homological properties in the abelian categories involved in a recollement, see Proposition 3.5. We also recall the notion of a functor between abelian categories being an eventually homological isomorphism and we characterize when the quotient functor in a recollement is an eventually homological isomorphism, see Proposition 3.11. The latter result is used in Section 5.
Section 4 is devoted to arrow removal and the finitistic dimension. This section is divided into two subsections. In the first one, we investigate the behaviour of the finitistic dimension of the abelian categories in a cleft extension (under certain conditions), see Theorem 4.1. This is the first key result for showing Theorem A (ii). In the second subsection, we study arrow removals of quotients of path algebras. We first characterize arrow removals as trivial extensions with projective bimodules admitting special properties, see Corollary 4.3 and Propositions 4.4 and 4.5. Then, we show that arrow removals gives rise to cleft extensions satisfying the needed properties for applying Theorem 4.1. This is done in Proposition 4.6. Finally, we summarise our results on reducing the finitistic dimension by removing arrows in Theorem 4.7, where Theorem A (ii) is a special case.
In Section 5 we investigate the vertex removal operation with respect to the finitistic dimension. This section is divided into four subsections. In the first subsection, we reprove the main result of [10] on reducing the finitistic dimension via the homological heart using the reduction techniques of Fossum-Griffith-Reiten and Happel. In the second subsection, we generalize the result of Fuller-Saorin [7, Proposition 2.1] (vertex removal, projective dimension at most one) from the case of artinian rings to the general context of recollements of abelian categories, see Theorem 5.5. We remark that we also provide a lower bound. The third subsection is about removing vertices of finite injective dimension. In particular, in Theorem 5.8 we show Theorem B stated above in the general context of recollements of abelian cateogories. Note that Theorems 5.5 and 5.8 (as well as Theorem 4.1 for the arrow removal) can be applied to the big finitistic dimension as well. The last subsection is about eventually homological isomorphisms in recollements of abelian categories and invariance of finiteness of the finitistic dimension between the middle category and the quotient category. In particular, we show that fin. dim Λ < ∞ if and only if fin. dim eΛe < ∞, where Λ is an Artin algebra and e an idempotent element, provided that the quotient functor e(−) : mod-Λ −→ mod-eΛe is an eventually homological isomorphism, see Theorem 5.11.
The last section, Section 6, is devoted to examples. We provide a variety of new and known examples where we reduce the finiteness of the finitistic dimension using our techniques of arrow and vertex removal. In particular, we show in Example 6.4 that the finitistic dimension of a reduced algebra can be arbitrary large. We also present an example showing that a reduced algebra is not unique.
In an appendix we provide a short introduction to non-commutative Gröbner basis for path algebras. We recall some notions and results from the theory of Gröbner basis that are used in Section 4.

Conventions and Notation.
For a ring R we work usually with right R-modules and the corresponding category is denoted by Mod-R. The full subcategory of finitely presented R-modules is denoted by mod-R. By a module over an Artin algebra Λ, we mean a finitely presented (generated) right Λ-module. Our abelian categories are assumed to have enough projectives and enough injectives. Given an abelian category A , we denote by Proj A (resp. Inj A ) the full subcategory consisting of projective (resp. injective) objects. For an additive functor F : A −→ B between additive categories, we denote by Im F = {B ∈ B | B ≃ F (A) for some A ∈ A } the essential image of F and by Ker F = {A ∈ A | F (A) = 0} the kernel of F . For a path algebra kQ, we denote by v e the vertex corresponding to the primitive idempotent e. ungsgemeinschaft (DFG, grant KO 1281/14 − 1). The third named author was partially supported by FRINAT grant number 23130 from the Norwegian Research Council. The results of this work were announced by the second author in the Algebra seminars of Stuttgart and of Bielefeld. The second author would like to express his gratitude to the member of the groups for the questions, comments and the useful discussions. The software [20] was used for initial analysis of many of the examples in this paper.

Cleft extensions of abelian categories
In this section we study cleft extensions of abelian categories. This concept was introduced by Beligiannis in [3], and it generalizes trivial extension of abelian categories due to Fossum-Griffith-Reiten [6]. We start by recalling and reviewing some of the known results about cleft extensions of abelian categories from [3,4]. Then endofunctors of the two categories occurring in a cleft extension are constructed and some properties are derived, which are used in Section 4 to investigate the finitistic dimensions in a cleft extension.   2) for all B in B and A in A . From (2.2) the morphism e(µ A ) is an (split) epimorphism. Using that e is faithful exact, we infer that µ A is an epimorphism for all A in A . Hence we have for every A in A the following short exact sequence In the next result we collect some basic properties of a cleft extension. Most of these properties follow from Definition 2.1 and are discussed in [3,4] but for completeness and the reader's convenience we provide a proof.
It follows that f = 0 and i is faithful.
i full: Let g : i(B) −→ i(B ′ ). Then straightforward arguments show that ). This shows that i is full.
i exact: First note the following. Since e : A −→ B is faithful, the kernel of e is consisting only of the zero object. Let be an exact sequence in B. Since ei ≃ Id B , we infer that e(i(η)) is a short exact sequence. The complex gives rise to the exact sequences Applying e to these sequences and using that e is faithful exact and that e(i(η)) is exact, we conclude that Ker i(f ) = 0, Im i(f ) ≃ Ker i(g), Im i(g) ≃ i(B 3 ) and Coker i(g) = 0. Consequently, the functor i : B −→ A is exact.
Then we have the following commutative diagram Starting with 1 B in the upper left corner and tracing this element to the upper right corner we obtain 1 B using (2.2) for A = i(B), hence we get f in the lower right corner. Starting with 1 B in the upper left corner and tracing it around the first square we obtain l(f ). Using that l(f ) is mapped to f on the lower row, it follows that the functor l is faithful. l preserves projectives: Since we have the adjoint pair (l, e) and the functor e is exact, it follows that the functor l : B −→ A preserves projective objects.
(iv) We show that there is a functor q : A −→ B such that (q, i) is an adjoint pair. Consider first the maps eµ A and eµ ie(A) in the following not necessarily commutative diagram: For simplicity, we identify the vertical isomorphisms and we consider the following exact sequence: Then there is a functor q : A −→ B defined on objects by the assignment A → q(A) := Coker (eµ A − eµ ie(A) ). Given a morphism f : Therefore we get that the map κ i(B) : B −→ qi(B) is an isomorphism. We define a natural morphism: is also an epimorphism we need some more work. For every A in A we have the short exact sequence (2.3). In particular, using that µ A : le(A) −→ A is surjective for all objects A in A we get the following exact sequence: It is shown in [3, Proposition 2.3] that the next composition is zero: This implies that there is map λ A : A −→ iq(A) such that Consider now a morphism g : q(A) −→ B. Then the composition map i(g)λ A : To see this there is a series of computations that the reader needs to verify. First, we compute that F A,B (i(g)λ A ) = κ −1 i(B) qi(g)q(λ A ) and we have to show that the latter morphism is g. The first observation is that . Using the natural isomorphism ϕ B and ϕ q(A) we obtain that the desired composition Using the relation ( * ), it follows that eλ = κ. Since κ iq(A) eλ A = q(λ A )κ A using the identification eλ = κ we get that q(λ A )κ A = κ iq(A) κ A . Since the map κ A is an epimorphism, it follows that q(λ A ) = κ iq(A) . Thus the desired composition gκ −1 iq(A) q(λ A ) gives the map g. This shows that F A,B is surjective. The details are left to the reader, see also the proof of [3, Proposition 2.3]. We infer that (q, i) is an adjoint pair.
(v) From the adjoint pairs (l, e), (q, i) and since we have the natural isomorphism ei ≃ Id B , it follows that there is a natural isomorphism ql ≃ Id B of functors.
Remark 2.5. There is a dual notion of a cleft extension for abelian categories. More precisely, a cleft coextension of an abelian category B is an abelian category A together with functors: r such that the functor e is faithful exact, (e, r) is an adjoint pair of functors, and there is a natural isomorphism ei ≃ Id B of functors. In this case, we can derive as in Lemma 2.2 similar properties for a cleft coextension. It is very interesting when a cleft extension of abelian categories (B, A , e, l, i) is also a cleft coextension. Indeed, this holds if and only if the endofunctor F appearing in the split exact sequence (2.5) has a right adjoint. In this case, we have the following diagram of functors: All these concepts are due to Beligiannis [3,4], in particular, see [4, subsection 2.4] for a thorough discussion of cleft coextensions of abelian categories. We remark that diagram 2.6 will be studied further in Section 4.2.
From now on we make the following assumption on a cleft extension (B, A , e, l, i) of abelian categories: The functor l is exact and the functor e preserves projectives. (2.7) Note that if a cleft extension (B, A , e, l, i) is also a cleft coextension, i.e. we have diagram (2.6), then r being exact implies that e preserves projectives. We continue with the following useful results.
Lemma 2.6. Let (B, A , e, l, i) be a cleft extension of abelian categories such that condition (2.7) holds. Then the functor F is exact and preserves projective objects.
Proof. From Lemma 2.3 it follows that there is an isomorphism of functors el ≃ F ⊕ 1 B . Since the functors e and l are exact, we infer that F is exact. By Lemma 2.2 (iii) the functor l preserves projective objects, and by assumption the functor e has the same property. Then the isomorphism el ≃ F ⊕ 1 B show that F preserves projective objects. Lemma 2.7. Let (B, A , e, l, i) be a cleft extension of abelian categories such that condition (2.7) holds. Moreover, assume that F n = 0 for some n ≥ 2. Let A be an object in A . Then the following statements are equivalent: the functor e preserves projective objects, hence eG n−1 (A) is projective in B. By Lemma 2.4 (i) the objects eG n−1 (A) and F n−1 e(A) are isomorphic, and therefore Then lF n−1 e(A) lies in Proj A by Lemma 2.2 (iii), and therefore from Lemma 2.4 the object leG n−1 (A) is projective. Moreover, Lemma 2.4 (ii) yields that G n = 0 by our assumption. Then, if we consider the exact sequence (2.3) for the object

Recollements of abelian categories
We start this section by recalling the definition of a recollement situation in the context of abelian categories, see for instance [17] and references therein, we fix notation and recall some well known properties of recollements which are used later in the paper. We also introduce a relative homological dimension in a recollement (A , B, C ) which is relevant for the inclusion functor i : A −→ B to be a homological embedding and provides other properties of the recollement. Finally, we recall when a functor between abelian categories is an eventually homological isomorphism and characterize this property for the quotient functor in a recollement.
We begin by recalling the definition of a recollement of abelian categories.
Definition 3.1. A recollement situation between abelian categories A , B and C is a diagram We collect some basic properties of a recollement of abelian categories. They can be derived easily from Definition 3.1, for more details see [17]. (iv) The units of the adjoint pairs (i, p) and (l, e) and the counits of the adjoint pairs (q, i) and (e, r) are isomorphisms: A well-known example of a recollement of abelian categories is induced from a ring and an idempotent as we explain next. Example 3.3. Let R be a ring with an idempotent element e ∈ R. Then the diagram is a recollement of abelian categories. It should be noted that this recollement is the universal example of a recollement situation with terms categories of modules. Indeed, from [18] we know that any recollement of module categories is equivalent, in an appropriate sense, to one induced by an idempotent element as above.
There are even further functors that are naturally associated to a recollement of abelian categories (A , B, C ). One such functor is obtained from the exact sequence (3.1): We let H : B −→ B be the endofunctor defined by the short exact sequence on all objects B of B. The endofunctor H is an idempotent radical subfunctor of the identity functor Id B , see [16,Proposition 3.5]. This endofunctor is useful in connection with the next relative dimensions, see Proposition 3.5 below. Let (A , B, C ) be a recollement of abelian categories. In [16] the notion of Arelative global dimension 1 of B was defined as follows: Our aim is to explore the homological behaviour of a recollement (A , B, C ) under the finiteness of pgl. dim B A or igl. dim B A .
From Proposition 3.2 we know that the functor r : C −→ B preserves injective objects. Under the finiteness of igl. dim B A , we show that the functor r preserves objects of finite injective dimension even though it is not an exact functor in general. Similar considerations hold for the functor l.  Proof. We only prove (i) as (ii) is shown by similar arguments.
For any object C in C we show that the following formula holds: Then it follows immediately that the functor r preserves objects of finite injective dimension. Note that the dual formula is proved in [16, Lemma 4.3], so (ii) follows as well. For readers convenience we prove formula (3.3).
If the object C is injective, then r(C) is injective and therefore the relation (3.3) holds. Suppose that the object C has injective dimension one. This means that there is an exact sequence with I 0 and I 1 in Inj C . Applying the left exact functor r we obtain the following exact sequence is the first right derived functor of r. If we apply the exact functor e : B −→ C and by Proposition 3.2 (iv), we derive that the object R 1 r(C) is annihilated by e. This implies that R 1 r(C) lies in i(A ) which by our assumption satisfies id B R 1 r(C) ≤ n. Thus, we have id B Coker r(a 0 ) ≤ n + 1 and therefore we conclude that id B r(C) ≤ 1 + n + 1. Continuing inductively on the length of the injective resolution of C we get formula (3.3) and this completes the proof.
For an injective coresolution 0 −→ B −→ I 0 −→ I 1 −→ · · · of B in B, the image of the morphism I m−1 −→ I m is an m-th cosyzygy of B and is denoted by Σ m (B). The full subcategory of B consisting of the m-th cosyzygy objects is denoted by Σ m (B).
The finiteness of the A -relative projective global dimension of B implies also that sup{pd B i(P ) | P ∈ Proj A } is finite. In the following result we characterize the finiteness of the above number, compare this with [16, Remark 4.6, Proposition 4.15]. Recall from [16] that an exact functor i : A −→ B between abelian categories is a homological embedding if the map i n X,Y : ) is an isomorphism for every pair of objects X, Y in A and for all n ≥ 0. To this end we need to introduce the following notation.
Let X ⊆ A be a full subcategory. For integers 0 ≤ i ≤ k we denote by X i ⊥ k the full subcategory of A which is defined by We also denote by X 1 ⊥∞ the full subcategory of A defined by Similarly we define the full subcategories i⊥k X and 1 ⊥∞ X.
Proposition 3.5. Let (A , B, C ) be a recollement of abelian categories. Assume that B has enough projectives and injectives. The following are equivalent: If m = 1, then the above conditions are equivalent to the following one.
(iv) The functor i : A −→ B is a homological embedding and the quotient functor e : B −→ C preserves projective objects.
Proof. The equivalence of statements (i) and (ii) follows from the isomorphism be an object in B and consider an injective coresolution in B : Let P be a projective object in B. From our assumption and by dimension shift Applying the functor Hom B (−, B) we get the long exact sequence: Assume that m = 1. We show (iii)=⇒(iv). Let P be a projective object in B and let A be an object in A . Consider the exact sequence (3.4) and apply the functor Hom B (−, i(A)). Since H(P ) is projective, the long exact sequence of homology yields that Ext n B (iq(P ), i(A)) = 0 for all n ≥ 2. Furthermore, it shows that Ext 1 B (iq(P ), i(A)) is a quotient of Hom B (H(P ), i(A)), which is isomorphic to Hom A (q(H(P )), A) by the adjunction (q, i). Using that H(P ) is a quotient of le(P ), the functor q is right exact and ql = 0, it follows that q(H(P )) = 0. Hence Ext n B (iq(P ), i(A)) = 0 for all n ≥ 1. Then [16,Theorem 3.9] implies that the functor i is a homological embedding.
It remains to show that e(P ) lies in Proj C . From Proposition 3.2 (iii) we have that the functor e : B −→ C is essentially surjective. Moreover, since the composition ei = 0, see Proposition 3.2 (ii), if we apply the exact functor e to the sequence (3.4) we get that e(H(P )) ≃ e(P ). Thus, it suffices to show that Ext n C (e(H(P )), e(Y )) = 0 for any n ≥ 1 and Y in B. Since the functor i is a homological embedding, it follows from [16,Corollary 3.11] that there is an isomorphism for any n ≥ 1. Since by (iii), the object H(P ) is projective it follows from the isomorphism (3.5) that the object e(P ) is projective. Finally, the implication (iv)=⇒(iii) follows immediately from the isomorphism (3.5) using again that e(H(P )) ≃ e(P ).
Let A be an abelian category with enough projective objects. Let A be an object in A and · · · −→ P 1 −→ P 0 −→ A −→ 0 a projective resolution of A in A . The kernel of the morphism P n−1 −→ P n−2 is an n-th syzygy of A and is denoted by Ω n (A). Also, if X is a class of objects in A , then we denote by ⊥ X = {A ∈ A | Hom A (A, X) = 0} the left orthogonal subcategory of X.
We now recall some basic facts about projective covers in the setting of abelian categories. We refer to [15] for more details. Let X be an object in an abelian category A . The radical of X, denoted by radX, is the intersection of all its maximal subobjects. Clearly, if S is a simple object then radS = 0. Recall also that an epimorphism f : P −→ X is a projective cover, if P is projective and the map f is an essential epimorphism. In this case, the kernel Ker f is contained in the radical of P , i.e. Ker f ⊆ radP . Moreover, given a morphism g : X −→ Y in A we always have g(radX) ⊆ radY . Lemma 3.6. Let A be an abelian category with projective covers and let S be a simple object. Then for every n ≥ 1 there is an isomorphism Let X be an object in A . Consider a projective resolution of X by taking projective covers This means that the map d 0 is a projective cover, the map P 1 −→ Ω(X) is a projective cover and so on. Applying the functor Hom A (−, S) we claim that the following complex has zero differentials. By the construction of the resolution (3.6) we have that This implies that the complex (3.7) has zero differential and therefore we get that Ext n A (X, S) ≃ Hom A (P n , S) Consider now the exact sequence P n+1 −→ P n −→ Ω n (X) −→ 0. Applying the functor Hom A (−, S) we obtain the exact sequence and thus an isomorphism Hom A (Ω n (X), S) ≃ Hom A (P n , S). This completes the proof of the desired isomorphism.
In the rest of this section we are interested in the eventual homological behaviour of the category B is a recollement (A , B, C ). To this end the following result from [19] is useful. (i) The object B has a projective resolution of the form  [19,Theorem 3.4]. Under the finiteness of the A -relative injective global dimension of B, we show in the next result that each object admits a truncated projective resolution after some step with projectives coming from the quotient category C via the section functor l. Lemma 3.8. Let (A , B, C ) be a recollement of abelian categories such that A is a finite length category. Assume that igl. dim B A = t < ∞ and that B has projective covers. Then any object of B has a projective resolution as follows: Proof. From Lemma 3.7 it suffices to show that Ext j B (B, i(A)) = 0 for all A in A and j > t + 1, and there is an Since every object in A is filtered in finitely many steps by simple objects, it follows from Lemma 3.6 that Hom B (Ω t+1 (B), i(A))=0 for all A in A . We infer that Ω t+1 (B) lies in ⊥ i(A ) and this completes the proof.
We start by recalling from [19] when a functor is an eventually homological isomorphism. Note that we define the latter in the context of abelian categories. Note that we do not require these isomorphisms to be induced by the functor E, see Remark 3.12 below. We continue with the next result from [19] where a characterization is provided for when the functor e in a recollement (A , B, C ) induces isomorphisms of extension groups in almost all degrees.
where each Q j lies in Proj C . Then the following statements are equivalent:(ii) ⇐⇒ (iii) ⇐⇒ (iv). If one of these holds and in addition we have pd C e(P ) ≤ m for every projective object P in B, then statement (i) holds.
In [19,Corollary 3.12] the authors characterized when the multiplication functor e(−) : mod-Λ −→ mod-eΛe (see Example 3.3), where Λ is an Artin algebra, is an eventually homological isomorphism. The following result generalizes [19,Corollary 3.12] from Artin algebras to abelian categories with certain conditions. Proposition 3.11. Let (A , B, C ) be a recollement of abelian categories. Assume that A is a finite length category and that B has projective covers. The following statements are equivalent: (i) There is an integer t such that for every pair of objects X and Y in B, and every j > t, the map is an isomorphism. (ii) The functor e : B −→ C is an eventually homological isomorphism.
In particular, if the functor e is a s-homological isomorphism, then each of the dimensions in (iii) and (iv) are at most s. The bound t in (i) is bounded by the sum of the dimensions occurring in (iii), and also bounded by the sum of the dimensions occurring in (iv).
(ii)=⇒(iii): Let A be an object of A . Then, there is a positive integer t such that for every object B in B and for all j > t, we have the isomorphism , ei(A)) The latter extension group vanishes since ei = 0 by Proposition 3.2 (ii). This implies that id B i(A) ≤ t and therefore (α) holds. For (β), let P be a projective object of B. For every C in C and j > t, we have the following isomorphism Ext j C (e(P ), C) ≃ Ext j C (e(P ), el(C)) ≃ Ext j B (P, l(C)) = 0 since el ≃ Id C by Proposition 3.2 (iv). We infer that pd C e(P ) ≤ t and therefore statement (β) holds. Similarly we show that (ii)=⇒(iv). Similarly we show that (iv)=⇒(i) and then the four statements are equivalent.
Remark 3.12. (i) The implication (ii)=⇒(i) in Proposition 3.11 shows that whenever we know that the quotient functor e is an eventually homological isomorphism, we can obtain the desired isomorphisms from the functor e. This explains why in Definition 3.9 we don't require these isomorphisms to be induced by the involved functor. (ii) It is natural to consider if any other pair of the four conditions (α) − (δ) in Proposition 3.11 implies that the functor e is an eventually homological isomorphism. We refer to [19,Subsection 8.1] for examples showing that this is not the case.

Arrow removal and finitistic dimension
In this and the following section the finitistic dimension of an abelian category with enough projectives is discussed. Recall that given an abelian category A with enough projectives, the finitistic projective dimension of A is defined by In the first subsection we begin by investigating cleft extensions of abelian categories where the images of the endofunctors F and G have bounded projective dimension. Such cleft extensions occur when factoring out ideals generated by arrows not occurring in a set of minimal relations (with some conditions) of finite dimensional quotients of path algebras. These special cleft extensions we study and characterize in the second and the final subsection.
This means that all objects in Im F and Im G have finite projective dimension and there is a uniform bound for the length of the shortest projective resolutions, which is n B and n A , respectively. This is a general version of Theorem A (ii) presented in the Introduction. Proof. For any object B in B, using that the functors l and e are exact and preserve projective objects (by Lemma 2.2 (iii) and (vii)), we have Similarly, for any object A in A we have Let B be an object in B of finite projective dimension. Then we obtain that

4.2.
Arrow removal. Now we apply the result from the previous subsection to quotients of path algebras by admissible ideals, where we factor out an ideal generated by arrows which do not occur in a minimal set of relations with additional properties. Let Λ = kQ/I be an admissible quotient of a path algebra kQ. If a is an arrow in Q which is not occurring in a minimal generating set for I, then we refer to the quotient Γ = Λ/ a as arrow removal. In this subsection we have two aims: 1) To show that arrow removal is a cleft extension satisfying the conditions in Theorem 4.1. 2) Characterize arrow removal as trivial extensions with projective bimodules with special properties. We start with the second goal. We remark that Corollary 4.3 and Proposition 4.4 provide a general version of Theorem A (i), as presented in the Introduction, for removing multiple arrows that do not occur in a minimal generating set of I.
Let Γ = kQ * /I * be an admissible quotient of a path algebra kQ * . First we analyse trivial extensions Λ = Γ ⋉ P with a projective Γ-Γ-bimodule P and show it is the same as adding one arrow for each indecomposable direct summand of P to Q * and adding the relations akQ * b for all the different arrows a and b that we are adding.
Proposition 4.2. Let Γ = kQ * /I * for a field k, a finite quiver Q * and an admissible ideal I * in kQ * . Let P be the projective Γ env -module given by P = ⊕ t i=1 Γe i ⊗ k f i Γ for some trivial paths e i and f i in Q * for i = 1, 2, . . . , t, where Γ env = Γ op ⊗ k Γ. Then the trivial extension Λ = Γ⋉P is isomorphic to a quotient kQ/I, where Q has the same vertices and the same arrows as Q * with one arrow a i : v ei −→ v fi added for each indecomposable summand Γe i ⊗ k f i Γ of P and I = I * , t,t i,j=1 a i kQ * a j in kQ.
This gives that Λ/rad(Λ) ≃ kQ * 0 and rad(Λ)/rad(Λ) 2 ≃ rad(Γ)/rad(Γ) 2 ⋉ P/(rad(Γ)P + P rad(Γ)) . It follows from this that the vertices in Q are the same as the vertices in Q * and that Q has the same arrows as Q * and in addition has one additional arrow a i for each indecomposable direct summand Γe i ⊗ k f i Γ of P corresponding to the vectorspace 0 ⋉ kQ * 0 e i ⊗ f i kQ * 0 . The new arrow a i correspond to the element x i = (0, e i ⊗ f i ), which has the property that This shows that there is a surjective homomorphism of algebras ϕ : kQ −→ Λ defined by It is clear that I * and t,t i,j=1 a i kQ * a j are in the kernel of ϕ, since (0 ⋉ P ) 2 = 0. We want to show that Let z be an arbitrary element in the ideal generated by the arrows in kQ and in the kernel of ϕ. Given that we know I * , t,t i,j=1 a i kQ * a j is in the kernel of ϕ, we only need to consider elements z of the form for r, r 1ij and r 2ij in kQ * , where r 1ij = r 1ij e i and r 2ij = f i r 2ij for 1 j s i . By the algebra homomorphism ϕ this element is mapped to Then we must have that r = 0 in Γ and t,si i,j=1 r 1ij x i r 2ij = 0 in P . We have that and this gives that and in particular that si j=1 r 1ij ⊗ r 2ij = 0 in Γe i ⊗ k f i Γ for each i. Since it follows from the above that kernel of ϕ is I * , t,t i,j=1 a i kQ * a j in kQ. This completes the proof of the proposition. Now we prove that a trivial extension of an algebra Γ with a finitely generated projective bimodule P with certain properties gives rise to an algebra where arrows can be removed. This is the first part of the characterization of arrow removal. Corollary 4.3. Let Γ = kQ * /I * for a field k, a finite quiver Q * and an admissible ideal I * in kQ * . Let P be the projective Γ env -module given by P = ⊕ t i=1 Γe i ⊗ k f i Γ for some trivial paths e i and f i in Q * for i = 1, 2, . . . , t, where Γ env = Γ op ⊗ k Γ. Suppose that Hom Γ (e i Γ, f j Γ) = 0 for all i and j in {1, 2, . . . , t}.
(i) The trivial extension Λ = Γ⋉P is isomorphic to a quotient kQ/I, where Q has the same vertices and the same arrows as Q * with one arrow a i : v ei −→ v fi added for each indecomposable summand Γe i ⊗ k f i Γ of P and I = I * in kQ.
Here v ei and v fi are the vertices corresponding to the primitive idempotents e i and f i , respectively. Proof. (i) We have that 0 = Hom Γ (e i Γ, f j Γ) ≃ f j Γe i for all i and j, which is equivalent to saying that f j kQ * e i is contained in I * for all i and j. We infer from this that a j kQ * a i = a j (f j kQ * e i )a i is in the ideal I * in kQ. The claim then follows immediately from Proposition 4.2.
(ii) The first claim follows directly from (i). We have that Next we prove the converse of the above result. This needs some preparation. Let Λ = kQ/I be an admissible quotient of the path algebra kQ over a field k. Suppose that there are arrows a i : v ei −→ v fi in Q for i = 1, 2, . . . , t which do not occur in a set of minimal generators of I in kQ and Hom Λ (e i Λ, f j Λ) = 0 for all i and j in {1, 2, . . . , t}. Let Γ = Λ/Λ{a i } t i=1 Λ for a i = a i + I in Λ. We have the natural surjective algebra homomorphism π : Λ −→ Γ, and we claim that there is a natural algebra inclusion ν : Γ ֒→ Λ such that πν = id Γ . Let Q * be the subquiver of Q, where the arrows {a i } t i=1 have been removed. The quiver inclusion morphism Q * −→ Q induces an inclusion kQ * → kQ of path algebras. This further induces an inclusion ν ′ : kQ * /(kQ * ∩ I) → kQ/I = Λ.
We want to show that Γ ≃ kQ * /(kQ * ∩ I). We have that where the sum is direct as vectorspaces, hence kQ = kQ{a i } t i=1 kQ ⊕ kQ * . In addition, since I is generated by I ∩ kQ * , it follows that , and this implies that We infer from this that the epimorphism ϕ : kQ * /(I ∩ kQ * ) → Λ/Λ{a i } t i=1 Λ = Γ given by ϕ(p) = p + I for p in kQ * is an isomorhism. The inclusion kQ * → kQ induces an inclusion ν : kQ * /(I ∩ kQ * ) → Λ in such a way that the composition ϕ −1 πν = id. If we now identify Γ with kQ * /(I ∩ kQ * ), we have our desired result.
The exact sequence can be considered as a sequence of Γ-Γ-bimodules. This sequence splits as an exact sequence of one-sided Γ-modules, so that Λ ≃ Λ{a} t i=1 Λ ⊕ Γ as a left and as a right Γ-module. Next we prove that Λ{a} t i=1 Λ is a projective Γ-Γ-bimodule and that we have the converse of Corollary 4.3. ( (ii) First we argue that t i=1 Λa i Λ is a direct sum. Since f j Λe i = 0 for all i and j in {1, 2, . . . , t}, it follows that a j Λa i = 0 for all i and j in {1, 2, . . . , t}. This implies that Λa i Λ = Γa i Γ as a Γ-Γ-bimodule. Let , and the elements λ ji and λ ′ ji are in Nontip(I) by Lemma A.1 (iii). Assume that x = 0, or equivalently, when x is viewed as an element in kQ, then x is in I. Then the tip of x is divisible by a tip of an element of a Gröbner basis G for I in kQ by the definition of a Gröbner basis (see Definition A.2). The tip of x is of the form λ j0i0 a i λ ′ j0i0 = pTip(g)p ′ for some integers i 0 and j 0 , some paths p and p ′ and some g in G by Lemma A.3 (iii). Since the arrows a i do not occur in a set of minimal generators for I, the element Tip(g) must divide λ j0i0 or λ ′ j0i0 by Lemma A.4. Since λ j0i0 and λ ′ j0i0 are in Nontip(I), this is a contradiction. Hence, we must have c j0i0 = 0, which is another contradiction. It follows that the sum with α r in k \ {0} and γ r and γ ′ r in Nontip(I) ∩ kQ * by Lemma A.5. If x is in Ker ψ, then in Λa i Λ, or equivalently that ψ(x) is in I. The tip of ψ(x) is Tip(ψ(x)) = γ r0 a i γ ′ r0 for some r 0 . As ψ(x) is in I, this tip must be divisible by some tip of an elemenet g in G, a Gröbner basis for I. The arrow a i does not occur in any element in G by Lemma A.4, so we infer that Tip(g) divides γ r0 or γ ′ r0 . But this is impossible, since γ r0 and γ ′ r0 are elements in Nontip(I). It follows that α r0 = 0, which is a contradiction. Hence we have that Ker ψ = 0 and Γe i ⊗ k f i Γ ≃ Λa i Λ, which is a projective Γ-Γ-bimodule. This completes the proof of (ii).
(iii) This follows from the comments before this proposition and parts (i) and (ii). Now we look at the special case removing only one arrow a : v e −→ v f not occurring in a set of minimal generators of I and Hom Λ (eΛ, f Λ) = 0. We show that the second condition is superfluous. This is Theorem A (i) as stated in the Introduction. Assume that aΛe = 0, that is, there is some path p in Q such that ap = 0 and p ends in v e . Since I is an admissible ideal, we have that (ap) t = 0 in Λ or equivalently (ap) t is in I for some t 1. In particular, reducing the element (ap) t modulo a minimal set of generators for a Gröbner basis for I gives zero. Choose p minimal with the property that ap ∈ I. Reducing (ap) t modulo I means to substract elements of the form p ′ gp ′′ for some paths p ′ and p ′′ in Q and g in G, where Tip((ap) t ) = (ap) t = Tip(p ′ gp ′′ ) = p ′ Tip(g)p ′′ .
Since Tip(g) does not contain a by Lemma A.4, we must have that Tip(g) | p, where this means Tip(g) divides p, that is, qTip(g)q ′ = p for some path q and q ′ in Q. Hence we can write Since for all the paths s that are smaller than p the elements as are in I, it follows from the above that ap is in I. This is a contradiction, so aΛe = 0. Hence f Λe = 0 and Hom Λ (eΛ, f Λ) = 0. From the above and Proposition 4.4 it follows that Λ is isomorphic to the trivial extension Γ ⋉ P , where Γ ≃ Λ/ΛaΛ and P = Γe ⊗ k f Γ with Hom Γ (eΓ, f Γ) = (0). Conversely, assume that Λ is isomorphic to the trivial extension Γ ⋉ P , where Γ ≃ Λ/ΛaΛ and P = Γe ⊗ k f Γ with Hom Γ (eΓ, f Γ) = (0). Using Corollary 4.3 the claim follows.
Let the setting be as above, Λ = kQ/I be an admissible quotient of the path algebra kQ over a field k. Suppose that there are arrows a i : v ei −→ v fi in Q for i = 1, 2, . . . , t which do not occur in a set of minimal generators of I in kQ and Hom Λ (e i Λ, f j Λ) = 0 for all i and j in {1, 2, . . . , t}. Let Γ = Λ/Λ{a i } t i=1 Λ. Now we want to address the first aim of this section, namely that arrow removal Λ −→ Γ is a cleft extension satisfying the conditions in Theorem 4.1.
In the above situation we have the functors where F is given by the exact sequence In particular, is a cleft extension mod-Λ of mod-Γ satisfying (2.7) and (4.3) with both bounds being zero, that is, Im F ⊆ Proj(Γ) and Im G ⊆ Proj(Λ).
Proof. (i) The functor e : mod-Λ −→ mod-Γ is faithful exact, since it is given by the restriction along the algebra inclusion Γ −→ Λ.
(ii) This is immediate from the definitions of the functors l and e.
(iv) By the split exact sequence (4.6) as left Γ-modules, we have the isomorphism the functor l is exact. Using similar arguments as above we show that Λ Γ is a projective Γ-module, hence r = Hom Γ ( Λ Λ Γ , −) is an exact functor.
(v) Since (e, r) is an adjoint pair and r is exact by (iv), it follows that e preserves projectives.
(vi) Since e and l commutes with finite direct sums and they are exact, we infer that F also commutes with finite direct sums and is exact. By Watt's theorem Be i ⊗ k f i Γ by Proposition 4.4 (ii). The claim follows from this.
(vii) We have that From this we infer that F 2 (B) = 0 as f j Γe i = 0 by Proposition 4.4 (i) for all i and j in {1, 2, . . . , t}.
For the final claim, (i)-(iii) show that C is a cleft extension. Conditions (iv) and (v) show that (2.7) holds.
We end this section with the following consequence of the previous result and Theorem 4.1. This is Theorem A (ii) presented in the Introduction.
The abelian category mod-Λ is a cleft extension of mod-k, in particular, we have the following diagram: The right hand side is induced from the natural inclusion k −→ Λ. Then, the functor l is exact, the functor r is exact and therefore the functor e preserves projectives. Moreover, since mod-k is a semisimple category the image of the endofunctor F is projective. Let us now compute the endofunctor G. Let X be a Λ-module. From the exact sequence (4.2) we have the map and the endofunctor G is the kernel. Clearly, X| k ⊗ k Λ Λ is a finitely generated projective Λ-module. Thus, G(X) is the first syzygy of X plus some projective. This shows that for all X in mod-Λ the first syzygy of X is a direct summand of G(X) and therefore G(X) is not projective. Hence, the second part of condition (4.3) is not satisfied.

Vertex removal and finitistic dimension
This section is devoted to discussing reduction techniques for finitistic dimension in abelian categories with enough projectives occurring in recollement situations. This is done in four situations, two of which have occured in the literature already (see [6, Corollary 4.21 1)], [7, Proposition 2.1]) and two are new. These are applied to finite dimensional algebras.

Triangular reduction. A form of triangular reduction was considered by Happel in [12] via recollements:
Theorem 5.1. If a finite dimensional algebra Λ occur in a recollement of bounded derived categories like When such a recollement exists is characterized in [14], but it seems hard to apply. A reduction formula for the finitistic dimension of triangular matrix rings is given by the following classical result due to Fossum, Griffith and Reiten.
Let Λ be as in Theorem 5.2, and let e = ( 1 0 0 0 ) an idempotent element in Λ. The triangular ring gives rise to a recollement situation as in Example 3.3 with (1 − e)Λ(1 − e) ≃ Λ/ΛeΛ. We apply this reduction technique to finite dimensional quotients kQ/I of path algebras to show that Q is path connected if no triangular reduction is possible (first proved in [10]).
Given an idempotent e in a finite dimensional algebra Λ we can view Λ as the matrix ring .
If eΛ(1 − e) (or (1 − e)Λe) equals zero for any idempotent e = 0, 1, then we say that Λ has a triangular structure. Furthermore, an algebra Λ is said to be triangular reduced if Λ has no non-trivial triangular structures. We use Theorem 5.2 to reprove the following result from [10]: If a finite dimensional algebra Λ = kQ/I has no nontrivial triangular structure, then the quiver Q is path connected.

Proposition 5.3 ([10]
). Let Λ = kQ/I be an admissible quotient of the path algebra kQ over a field k. Assume that Λ is triangular reduced. Then Q is path connected.
We can continue this process and get subsets V t = {v i1 , v i2 , . . . , v it } in Q 0 and a vertex v it+1 ∈ V t with an arrow from some v ij −→ v it+1 for j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , t}. We can only continue this construction until we reach V n , since then e = n j=1 v ij = 1 and 1 − e = 0. In other words, there is a path from the vertex v 1 to any other vertex different from v 1 in Q. Since v 1 can be chosen to be any vertex in Q, the quiver Q is path connected.
A concept of a homological heart of a quotient of a path algebra is introduced in [10], which we recall and discuss next. As above let Λ = kQ/I be an admissible quotient of the path algebra kQ over a field k. The homological heart of Q is given as follows: Let X = {v ∈ Q 0 | v is a vertex on a non-trivial oriented cycle in Q} and let Y = {v ∈ Q 0 | y is a vertex on a path starting and ending in X.
Then the homological heart H(Q) of Q is the subquiver of Q with vertex set Y .
In order to discuss the properties of the homological heart of a quiver, we need to introduce the following. Let Γ be a full subquiver of Q. Define the following three full subquivers of Q by their corresponding vertex sets:  Assume now conversely that fin. dim Λ < ∞ and consider the idempotent element of Λ : Then by Example 3.3 we have the following recollement of module categories: Since Λ is a triangular matrix algebra, it follows by [16,Theorem 3.9] that the functor i is a homological embedding. Since gl. dim e − Λe − < ∞, by [16, Theorem 7.2 (ii)] we get a lifting of the above recollement to a recollement situation at the level of bounded derived categories as follows: By Theorem 5.1, it follows that fin. dim A < ∞. Then, as above, the module category of A admits the following recollement situation: The left adjoint l of f ′ (−) is an exact functor. Then from [16,Theorem 5.1], or by just using that (l, f ′ (−)) is an adjoint pair and l is exact which preserves projective modules, we get that fin. dim eΛe ≤ fin. dim A. We infer that fin. dim eΛe < ∞.

5.2.
Vertex removal, projective dimension at most 1. Let (A , B, C ) be a recollement of abelian categories. Recall that we can interpret the result as follows: We can remove A from B and not lose any information about the finiteness of the finitistic dimension. For an algebra Λ it means that Λ and eΛe has mutually finite finitistic dimensions for an idempotent e whenever pd Λ (1 − e)Λ/(1 − e)r ≤ 1. If Λ is a quotient of a path algebra and e is a sum of vertices, then the vertices in the quiver of eΛe correspond to the ones occurring in e, that is, the vertices occurring in 1 − e are removed. This is why we call the transition from Λ to eΛe vertex removal.
We start with the general situation of a recollement of abelian categoies. Let C be an object in C of finite projective dimension. Suppose that Fin. dim B = m < ∞. By the formula pd B l(C) ≤ pd C C + pgl. dim B A + 1, which is the dual of formula (3.3) in the proof of Lemma 3.4, we have that pd B l(C) ≤ pd C C + 2 and therefore pd B l(C) ≤ m. Thus we have an exact sequence Applying the functor e and using Proposition 3.2 (iv) we get the exact sequence where each e(P i ) lies in Proj C . We infer that pd C C ≤ m = Fin. dim B and this completes the proof.
Remark 5.6. The inequality of Theorem 5.5 was proved in [16,Proposition 4.15] to hold for the global dimension. Note also that the upper bound of Theorem 5.5 generalizes [7, Proposition 2.1] from basic left Artin rings to the setting of abstract abelian categories, thus to any recollement of module categories with R/ReR-relative projective global dimension pgl. dim R/ReR R ≤ 1.
Let Λ be an artin algebra with an idempotent e. As in Example 3.3 it gives rise to the recollement (mod-Λ/ΛeΛ, mod-Λ, mod-eΛe), where Λ/ΛeΛ is also an artin algebra and therefore all modules are filtered in semisimple modules. Then (1 − e)Λ/(1 − e)r is right Λ/ΛeΛ-module. In fact it is semisimple, where all simple Λ/ΛeΛ-modules occur as a direct summand. Then pgl. dim mod-Λ/ΛeΛ mod-Λ ≤ 1 if and only if pd Λ (1 − e)Λ/(1 − e)r ≤ 1. Using this we have the following immediate consequence of the above.  Fin. dim C is finite, see Remark 5.9 below. This has the same translation for an artin algebra Λ as in Corollary 5.7, namely through the condition id Λ (1 − e)Λ/(1 − e)r < ∞.
Next we prove the main result of this subsection which gives an upper bound for the finitistic dimension of B using the finiteness of the A -relative injective global dimension of B. This is a general version of Theorem B presented in the Introduction.
Theorem 5.8. Let (A , B, C ) be a recollement of abelian categories such that A is a finite length category and that B has projective covers. Then we have Let X be an object in B of finite projective dimension. Then from Lemma 3.8 there is a finite projective resolution as follows: with Q 1 and Q 0 in Proj C . Applying the functor e : B −→ C to (5.1) and using Proposition 3.2 (iv), we obtain the exact sequence which is a finite projective resolution of e(Ω t (X)). This implies that pd C e(Ω t (X)) ≤ Fin. dim C . Hence, the length of the resolution (5.1) is bounded by Fin. dim C + t. We conclude that pd B X ≤ Fin. dim C + t, and the claim follows.
Remark 5.9. It is natural to ask if in Theorem 5.8 we can get a lower bound for Fin. dim B. We show that this is indeed the case if we assume that igl. dim B A ≤ 1. Assume that Fin. dim B = m < ∞ and let C be an object of C of finite projective dimension. Since the injective relative dimension igl. dim B A ≤ 1, it follows from the dual of Proposition 3.5 that the functor i : A −→ B is a homological embedding and the functor e : B −→ C preserves injective objects. The latter condition is equivalent to the functor l : C −→ B being exact. Since l is exact and preserves projectives, we get that pd C C = pd B l(C) ≤ Fin. dim B = m < ∞. This implies that Fin. dim C ≤ Fin. dim B and so we are done.
We close this subsection with the following consequence of Theorem 5.8 for Artin algebras.
Corollary 5.10. (Solberg [22]) Let Λ be an Artin algebra and e an idempotent element. Then fin. dim Λ ≤ fin. dim eΛe + sup{id Λ S | S simple Λ/ΛeΛ-module} 5.4. Vertex removal, eventually homological isomorphism. Let (A , B, C ) be a recollement of abelian categories with enough injectives and projectives. Recall that the functor e : B −→ C is a t-eventually homological isomorphism for some t if (α) igl. dim B A < ∞ and (β) sup{pd C e(P ) | P ∈ Proj B} < ∞, see Proposition 3.11. We see that this includes the condition igl. dim B A < ∞ from the previous subsection. Hence if e : B −→ C is a t-eventually homological isomorphism, there should be an even closer relationship between finitistic dimension of B and C . This is shown in the next result.
Theorem 5.11. Let (A , B, C ) be a recollement of abelian categories such that A is a finite length category and B has projective covers. Assume that the functor e : B −→ C is a t-eventually homological isomorphism. Then the following statements hold.
In particular, Fin. dim B is finite if and only if Fin. dim C is finite.
Proof. By assumption there is an isomorphism Ext n B (B, B ′ ) ≃ Ext n C (e(B), e(B ′ )) for every n > t and for all objects B, B ′ in B.
(i) Assume that the finitistic dimension of B is finite. Let Y an object in C of finite projective dimension. By Proposition 3.2 (iv) and Proposition 3.11, we have for all integers n > t and for all objects B ′ in B. Since the functor e is essentially surjective by Proposition 3.2 (iii), it follows from (5.2) that pd B l(Y ) < ∞ and in particular pd B l(Y ) ≤ Fin. dim B. From the isomorphism (5.2) it follows that We infer that Fin. dim B ≤ max{Fin. dim C , t}.
(ii) Assume that the finitistic dimension of C is finite. Let B be an object in B of finite projective dimension. Then for any object B ′ in B we have the isomorphism Ext n B (B, B ′ ) ≃ Ext n C (e(B), e(B ′ )) for every n > t. As above, we obtain that pd C e(B) ≤ Fin. dim C and therefore Hence, we conclude that Fin. dim B ≤ max{Fin. dim C , t}.
The last claim follows directly from (i) and (ii).
As a consequence of Theorem 5.11 we have the following result for Artin algebras.
Corollary 5.12. Let Λ be an artin algebra with an idempotent e. Assume that the functor e : mod-Λ −→ mod-eΛe is a t-eventually homological isomorphism. Then the following statements hold.
In particular, fin. dim Λ is finite if and only if fin. dim eΛe is finite.
Using Corollary 5.12 we can reprove Corollary 5.7 in the following way. Assume that pd Λ (1 − e)Λ/(1 − e)rad(Λ) 1. By Proposition 3.5 the inclusion functor inc : mod-Λ/ΛeΛ −→ mod-Λ is a homological embedding and the quotient functor e : mod-Λ −→ mod-eΛe preserves projectives. Hence, from Proposition 3.11 we have the properties (β) and (γ) but in general this is not enough to obtain an eventually homological isomorphism. However, it follows from Lemma 8.9 and Corollary 8.8 in [19] that the functor e is an eventually homological isomorphism and therefore we can apply Corollary 5.12.
Remark 5.13. All the reductions that we have discussed give at least one thing, depending on your point of view. If you believe the finitistic dimension conjecture is true, then you "only" need to prove it for Λ = kQ/I where Q is path connected, all simple modules have infinite injective dimension and projective dimension at least 2, and all arrows occur in a given minimal generating set for the relations. If you believe the finitistic dimension conjecture is false, then you "only" need to search for/find a counter example with all the properties just given.

Examples
This section is devoted to giving examples illustrating the reduction techniques we have discussed in the previous sections. In this context we introduce the following notion. The first two examples are not possible to reduce using the earlier known techniques with vertex reduction for vertices corresponding to simple modules of projective dimension at most 1 or triangular reduction. In these examples one must use the new techniques with vertex reduction for vertices corresponding to simple modules of finite injective dimension or arrow removal, respectively. Reduced algebras Λ n for all positive integers n are constructed with the finitistic dimension equal to n. This shows that the finitistic dimension can be arbitrary for a reduced algebra. Then, all the rest of the examples are from the existing literature, and they are shown to be reducible using our techniques. In most cases a bound for the finitistic dimension of the algebra is given.
In all the examples the algebras Λ are given by quivers and relations. Then denote by S i the simple module associated to vertex number i and by e i the corresponding primitive idempotent. Furthermore, P i denotes the indecomposable projective modules e i Λ.
First we give two examples which can only be reduced by applying the new reduction techniques introduced in this paper, namely vertex removal corresponding to a simple module with finite injective dimension and arrow removal. Example 6.2. Let Λ be given as kΓ/I for a field k, where Γ is the quiver 3. Let Λ be given as kΓ/I for a field k, where Γ is and I = ac − bd, cef 1 , de, ef 1 g, f 1 gb, ga . Then all the simple modules are either Ω-periodic (Ω −1 -periodic) or eventually Ω-periodic (Ω −1 -periodic) of periode 11. Hence all the simple modules have infinite injective and infinite projective dimension and the algebra is reduced with respect to vertex removal. Furthermore, the algebra is triangular reduced. Therefore the only possible reduction we can perform is arrow removal as f 2 is not occurring in any relations.
Next we construct algebras Λ n for all positive integers n, which are reduced with fin. dim Λ n = n. Hence, a reduced algebra can have arbitrarily large finitistic dimension.
Example 6.4. Let Λ n be given as kΓ n /I n , where Γ n is given by 2n + 1 dn y y t t t t t t t t t 2n + 2 e s s and the ideal I n in kΓ n is generated by and {c n e, d n e, ea 1 , eb 1 }. All the algebras Λ n are reduced, Koszul and of finite representation type. Since fin. dim Λ n = n, a reduced algebra can have arbitrarily large finitistic dimension.
All the remaining examples are taken from the existing literature. We shall see that all of them can be reduced using one of our reduction techniques. Example 6.5. This example is Example 1 from [24]. Define Λ by the following quiver and relations over a field k.
The injective and the projective dimensions of the simple Λ-modules are given as follows.
S 1 S 2 S 3 S 4 S 5 pd 2 ∞ 1 0 1 id 0 ∞ 1 ∞ 0 Using that the projective dimension of the simple modules {S 3 , S 4 , S 5 } are at most 1, we can remove the vertices {3, 4, 5} and obtain the algebra Which can be further reduced to the local algebra e 2 Λ 1 e 2 , since S 1 is injective. Alternatively, using that the injective dimension of the simple modules {S 1 , S 3 , S 5 } are at most 1 in the original algebra, the vertices {1, 3, 5} can be removed and we obtain the algebra Which can be further reduced to the local algebra e 2 Λ 2 e 2 , since S 4 is projective. Independent of which reduction we carry out, the original algebra has indeed finite finitistic dimension. In addition, whatever order we carry out the reductions, we end up with the same algebra up to isomorphism. Using Theorem 5.5 and Theorem 5.8 we obtain that fin. dim Λ ≤ 3. In addition, applying triangular reduction with e = e 3 + e 4 + e 5 we obtain fin. dim Λ ≤ 1 + fin. dim eΛe + fin. dim(1 − e)Λ(1 − e) where (1 − e)Λ(1 − e) = Λ 1 and eΛe is hereditary. We can again reduce Λ 1 by triangular reduction and get fin. dim Λ 1 ≤ 1 + fin. dim k + fin. dim k[x]/ x 3 = 1.
Collecting these observations we obtain, as above, fin. dim Λ ≤ 3. Example 2 from [25] is very similar, and it can be reduced in a similar fashion. Example 2 from [26] is different, but it admits similar reductions. Example 6.6. This is Example 1 from [25]. Define Λ by the following quiver and relations over a field k.
Example 6.7. This example is Example 4.4 from [7]. Define Λ by the following quiver and relations over a field k.
/ αδ, αγ, βǫγ, βǫδǫ, γα − δǫ, γβ, δǫδ, ǫγβ This algebra is triangular reduced, so the only possible reductions are vertex removal or arrow removal. All arrows occur in a minimal set of relations, so this only leaves us with vertex removal reduction.
The injective and the projective dimensions of the simple Λ-modules are given as follows.
S 1 S 2 S 3 pd ∞ ∞ 1 id ∞ 3 ∞ Using that the projective dimension of the simple module S 3 is 1, the vertex 3 can be removed to obtain the algebra  / a α a γ , a γ a βǫ , a βǫ a γ .
The indices σ on a σ for the arrows in the quiver of Λ 1 and later Λ 2 refer to which basis elements in Λ they correspond to. This is the opposite of the algebra in Example 3 in [25], which originally appeared in [13]. The algebra Λ 1 cannot be reduced further. Alternatively, using that the injective dimension of the simple Λ-module S 2 is 3, the vertex 2 can be removed to obtain the algebra  / a β a ǫγ , a ǫδ a ǫδ , a ǫγ a β , a ǫδ a ǫγ .
The algebra Λ 2 cannot be reduced further. Hence, different paths of reduction to a reduced algebra, do not give a unique algebra up to isomorphism.
As Λ 1 and also Λ 2 are monomial algebras, it follows easily from each of the different reductions that Λ has finite finitistic dimension. One can show that no indecomposable projective module can be a submodule of a finitely generated projective module without being a direct summand. Hence, the finitistic dimension of Λ 2 is 0, so that fin. dim Λ ≤ 3 by Corollary 5.10.
Not all examples in the existing literature are reducible, for instance, the examples [23, example at the end of Section 3] and [27, Example 3.1 and 3.2] seem to be reduced.

Appendix A. Gröbner basis
In this appendix we recall some basic facts about Gröbner basis that we use in Section 4. For further details and a proper introduction to the Gröbner basis we refer the reader to [9].
Let Q be a quiver and kQ the corresponding path algebra over a field k. Then the set B of all the paths in Q is a k-basis of the path algebra kQ. Gröbner basis theory is based on having a totally ordered basis with special properties, namely an admissible ordering of the basis. For a path algebra kQ we obtain such a basis by giving B the length-left-lexicographic ordering ≻ by describing a total order on all vertices and a total order on all arrows with all arrows bigger than any vertex. Then, given any non-zero element r = p∈B a p p in kQ with almost all a p in k being zero and p in B, we define the tip of r to be the element Tip(r) = p if a p = 0 and p ≻ q for all q with a q = 0. For any subset X in kQ, then the set of tips of X is given as Tip(X) = {Tip(r) | r ∈ X \ {0}} and the set of non-tips of X is given as Nontip(X) = B \ Tip(X).
Having the notions of tips and non-tips of a set give rise to the following fundamental result (see [9,Lemma 5.1] for (i) and [8, Theorem 2.1] for (ii) and (iii)).
Lemma A.1. Let I be an ideal in kQ with ≻ an admissible ordering of the k-basis B consisting of all paths in Q.
(i) For two paths p and p ′ in Q and an element x in kQ such that pxp ′ is non-zero, the tip of pxp ′ is Tip(pxp ′ ) = pTip(x)p ′ . (ii) As a k-vector space kQ can be decomposed as kQ = I ⊕ Span k (Nontip(I)), where Span k (Nontip(I)) denotes the k-linear span of Nontip(I).
(iii) As a k-vector space kQ/I can be indentified with Span k (Nontip(I)). In particular, any elemenet r + I in kQ/I can be represent uniquely by N (r) as r + I = N (r) + I, where N (r) is called the normal form of r and N (r) ∈ Span k (Nontip(I)).
A Gröbner basis of the ideal I facilitates a way of computing the normal form of any element in kQ. A Gröbner basis of an ideal in kQ is defined as follows.
Definition A.2. Let I be an ideal in kQ with ≻ an admissible ordering of the kbasis B consisting of all paths in Q. If G is a subset of I, then G is a Gröbner basis for I with respect to ≻ if the ideal generated by Tip(G) equals the ideal generated by Tip(I).
Having a finite Gröbner basis G for an ideal I in kQ with an admissible ordering ≻, gives a finite algorithm for computing the normal form of any element in kQ by iteratively applying of the reduction described in statement (iii) of the result below.
Lemma A.3. Let I be an admissible ideal in kQ with ≻ an admissible ordering of the k-basis B consisting of all paths in Q.
(i) Then there exists a finite Gröbner basis G of I in kQ. For a Gröbner basis G of I in kQ and any non-zero element x in I, the following hold.
(ii) The element Tip(x) is in Tip(G) .
(iii) There exist c in k, paths p and p ′ in Q and g in G such that Tip(x) = pTip(g)p ′ and Tip(x − cpgp ′ ) ≺ Tip(x), whenever x − cpgp ′ = 0.