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Regularity over homomorphisms and a Frobenius characterization of Koszul algebras

Let $R$ be a standard graded algebra over an $F$-finite field of characteristic $p > 0$. Let $ϕ:R\to R$ be the Frobenius endomorphism. For each finitely generated graded $R$-module $M$, let ${}^ϕ\!M$ be the abelian group $M$ with the $R$-module structure induced by the Frobenius endomorphism. The $R$-module ${}^ϕ\!M$ has a natural grading given by $\text{deg} x=j$ if $x\in M_{jp+i}$ for some $0\le i \le p-1$. In this paper, we prove that $R$ is Koszul if and only if there exists a non-zero finitely generated graded $R$-module $M$ such that $\text{reg}_R\,{}^ϕ\!M <\infty$. This result supplies another instance for the ability of the Frobenius in detecting homological properties, as exemplified by Kunz's famous regularity criterion. The main technical tool is the notion of Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity over certain homomorphisms between $\mathbb{N}$-graded algebras. The latter notion is a common generalization of the relative and absolute Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of modules.