Forcing linearity numbers for projective modules (Q1614637)

Throughout, \(R\) is an associative ring with identity and \(V\) is a unital left \(R\)-module. A function \(f\colon V\to V\) is said to be homogeneous if \(f(rv)=rf(v)\) for all \(r\in R\) and \(v\in V\). The set \(M_R(V)\) of all homogeneous maps from \(V\) to \(V\) is a near-ring under the operations of pointwise addition and composition of maps, and \(M_R(V)\) contains the endomorphism ring \(\text{End}_R(V)\) of \(V\) as a subring. A collection \({\mathcal S}=\{W_\alpha\}_{\alpha\in A}\) of nonzero proper submodules of \(V\) is said to force linearity if every \(f\in M_R(V)\) whose restriction to each \(W_\alpha\) is a member of \(\Hom_R(W_\alpha,V)\) must be an endomorphism of \(V\). The forcing linearity number of \(V\), denoted by \(\text{fln}(V)\), is defined to be zero if \(M_R(V)=\text{End}_R(V)\), and \(\text{fln}(V)=\infty\) if there exists no finite collection \(\mathcal S\) of proper submodules forcing linearity; if there do exist finite sets of proper submodules of \(V\) forcing linearity, then \(\text{fln}(V)\) is defined to be the infimum of the cardinalities of these collections. The author's abstract reads: The forcing linearity numbers for projective modules over commutative Noetherian rings are completely determined.