Cohen Factorizations: Weak Functoriality and Applications

We investigate Cohen factorizations of local ring homomorphisms from three perspectives. First, we prove a "weak functoriality" result for Cohen factorizations: certain morphisms of local ring homomorphisms induce morphisms of Cohen factorizations. Second, we use Cohen factorizations to study the properties of local ring homomorphisms (Gorenstein, Cohen-Macaulay, etc.) in certain commutative diagrams. Third, we use Cohen factorizations to investigate the structure of quasi-deformations of local rings, with an eye on the question of the behavior of CI-dimension in short exact sequences.