Gaussian properties of total rings of quotients (Q876344)

This paper deals with the following five properties of a (commutative) ring \(R\): \(R\) is semihereditary; the weak global dimension of \(R\) is at most one; \(R\) is arithmetical; \(R\) is Gaussian; \(R\) is a Prüfer ring. If \(R\) is a domain each of these properties is equivalent to \(R\) being a Prüfer domain. In previous works, Sarah Glaz proved that each these properties implies the next one, and that these implications cannot be reversed. In this paper that authors prove that if \(R\) is a Prüfer ring, then \(R\) satisfies one of these five conditions iff its total ring of quotients \(Q(R)\) satisfies the same condition. They show that if \(Q(R)\) is von Neumann regular, then all the five conditions are equivalent on \(R\). The authors provide a further characterization of the Gaussian property for quasilocal rings. They prove that the finitistic projective dimension of a Gaussian ring is at most one. They also prove that the weak global dimension of a coherent Prüfer ring is 0,1 or \(\infty\), and they conjecture that a similar theorem holds for general Gaussian rings (for a coherent Gaussian ring this result was already proved by Sarah Glaz).