Characteristic modules over a local ring

Let $R$ be a commutative noetherian local ring, and let $M$ be a finitely generated $R$-module. Inspired by works of Vasconcelos and Briggs on characterization of complete intersection local rings through the homological properties of the conormal module, in this paper, we define the characteristic module T$_M$ and the cocharacteristic module E$_M$ of $M$, and investigate their properties. Our main results include characterizations of Cohen--Macaulay and Gorenstein local rings. Also, we show that if the injective dimension of the conormal module over an almost complete intersection ring is finite, then $R$ is a complete intersection.