Indecomposable Almost Free Modules—The Local Case

DOI10.4153/CJM-1998-039-7MaRDI QIDQ4213967zbMATH OpenFDO

Publication date 4 February 2001

Published in Canadian Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0011182

almost free modules endomorphism rings indecomposable modules undecidability

Projective and free modules and ideals in commutative rings (13C10) Other special types of modules and ideals in commutative rings (13C13) Torsion-free groups, infinite rank (20K20) Direct sums, direct products, etc. for abelian groups (20K25) Extensions of abelian groups (20K35)

Abstract: Let R be a countable, principal ideal domain which is not a field and A be a countable R-algebra which is free as an R-module. Then we will construct an aleph_1-free R-module G of rank aleph_1 with endomorphism algebra End_RG=A . Clearly the result does not hold for fields. Recall that an R-module is aleph_1-free if all its countable submodules are free, a condition closely related to Pontryagin's theorem. This result has many consequences, depending on the algebra A in use. For instance, if we choose A=R, then clearly G is an indecomposable `almost free' module. The existence of such modules was unknown for rings with only finitely many primes like R=Z_{(p)}, the integers localized at some prime p. The result complements a classical realization theorem of Corner's showing that any such algebra is an endomorphism algebra of some torsion-free, reduced R-module G of countable rank. Its proof is based on new combinatorial-algebraic techniques related with what we call rigid tree-elements coming from a module generated over a forest of trees.

Review text

Let \(R\) be a countable principal ideal domain that is not a field, and let \(\kappa\leq\lambda\) be infinite cardinals. An \(R\)-module \(G\) of cardinality \(\lambda\) is said to be \(\kappa\)-free if all of its submodules of cardinality \(<\kappa\) are free \(R\)-modules. Such modules will tend to be free and thus are highly decomposable, as is the case when \(\lambda\) is a singular cardinal. That non-free \(\lambda\)-free \(R\)-modules of cardinality \(\lambda\) exist is a known result, but very little is known about their algebraic properties such as whether they decompose or not. The paper under review investigates the properties of non-free \(\lambda\)-free \(R\)-modules of cardinality \(\lambda\) in the case \(\kappa=\lambda=\aleph_1\). The primary theorem is as follows: if \(R\) is as stated above and \(A\not= 0\) is an \(R\)-free \(R\)-algebra with \(|A|<\lambda\leq 2^{\aleph_0}\), then there exists an \(\aleph_1\)-free \(R\)-module \(G\) of cardinality \(\lambda\) with \(\text{End }G=A\). Thus, the theorem gives us insight into the structure of \(\lambda\)-free \(R\)-modules through their endomorphism rings. If we choose \(A=R\) then we have constructed indecomposable \(\aleph_1\)-free \(R\) modules with cardinality \(\aleph_1\) and with \(\text{End }G=R\), a result that had only been previously known in the case \(R=\mathbb{Z}\). The main difficulty in expanding from \(\mathbb{Z}\) to \(R\) appears when \(R\) is a local ring, hence the reference to local rings in the title. The authors point out that the existence of indecomposable \(\aleph_2\)-free \(R\)-modules of cardinality \(\aleph_2\) and the existence of such modules with endomorphism ring \(R\) are both undecidable. The authors also offer some applications of the endomorphism ring results using appropriate \(R\)-algebras \(A\).

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