Cut cotorsion pairs

Abstract

We present the concept of cotorsion pairs cut along subcategories of an abelian category. This provides a generalization of complete cotorsion pairs, and represents a general framework to find approximations restricted to certain subcategories. We also exhibit some connections between cut cotorsion pairs and Auslander-Buchweitz approximation theory, by considering relative analogs for Frobenius pairs and Auslander-Buchweitz contexts. Several applications are given in the settings of relative Gorenstein homological algebra, chain complexes and quasi-coherent sheaves, but also to characterize some important results on the Finitistic Dimension Conjecture, the existence of right adjoints of quotient functors by Serre subcategories, and the description of cotorsion pairs in triangulated categories as co-t-structures.