Cancellation over commutative rings of dimension one and two (Q793790): Difference between revisions

Let R be a reduced Noetherian ring and let A,B,C be finitely generated torsionfree R-modules. This paper discusses conditions on the ring and the modules in order that, from \(A\oplus C\cong B\oplus C,\) one can conclude that \(A\cong B.\) When this is the case one says that torsionfree cancellation holds. It is shown that torsionfree cancellation holds when R is a regular integral domain of Krull dimension 2, finitely generated over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0. Most of the paper concerns one-dimensional rings with finitely generated integral closure. It is shown that torsionfree cancellation fails when R is the coordinate ring of a singular affine curve over an algebraically closed field. The paper contains some general results that allow one to decide, for many quadratic orders, whether or not torsionfree cancellation holds; and there are algorithms for handling the orders not covered by these theorems. The last short section discusses integral group rings of finite abelian groups, and anwers the cancellation question for all abelian groups except the cyclic groups of orders 8 and 9.