Indecomposables are standard (Q1074700): Difference between revisions

One of the most famous conjectures in representation theory is the 2nd Brauer-Thrall conjecture. It may be stated in the following form. If A is a finite dimensional algebra over an algebraically closed field and if A is of infinite representation type, then there is an infinity of natural numbers n such that A has infinitely many indecomposable, non isomorphic modules of dimension n. \textit{L. A. Nazarova} and \textit{A. V. Rojter} announced, in a pre-print in 1973, the first proof of this result [see: ''Categorical matrix problems and the Brauer-Thrall conjecture'', German version in Mitt. Math. Semin. Giessen 115, 1-153 (1975; Zbl 0315.16021)]. This proof, which was never published in a mathematical journal, has not been clearly understood up to the details. On the other hand, after the proof of the multiplicative bases theorem [see [BGRS]: Invent. Math. 81, 217-285 (1985; Zbl 0575.16012)], we have three fairly simple proofs of the above mentioned conjecture. They all are based on [BGRS] and, in principle, work only for characteristic different from 2. The first is due to \textit{R. Bautista} [see Comment. Math. Helv. 60, 400-410 (1985)] and the other two belong to \textit{U. Fischbacher} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I 300, 259-262 (1985; Zbl 0586.16012)] and to \textit{O. Bretscher} and \textit{G. Todorov} [see Lect. Notes Math. 1177, 50-54 (1986)]. The present article may be considered as an improvement to some results of [BGRS], so that it can be concluded that those recent proofs of the 2nd Brauer-Thrall conjecture are also valid in characteristic 2. The main result is of technical nature, dealing with some special properties of certain penny-farthings. The most interesting corollaries are: 1) a distributive algebra is representation-finite if and only if so is its standard form; 2) a representation-finite algebra with a faithful indecomposable module is standard. [BGRS] stands for the authors of this celebrated paper: \textit{R. Bautista}, \textit{P. Gabriel}, \textit{A. V. Rojter} and \textit{L. Salmerón}.