Residual bounds for varieties of modules (Q1179775)

In Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 264, 419-430 (1981; Zbl 0472.08008) and also in ``Commutator theory for congruence modular varieties'' (1987; Zbl 0636.08001), \textit{R. Freese} and \textit{R. McKenzie} prove that a finitely generated congruence modular variety is residually small if and only if it is residually less than \(n\) for some \(n<\omega\). In fact, they showed that if \({\mathfrak A}\) generates a residually small congruence modular variety and \(| A|=m\), then \({\mathcal V}({\mathfrak A})\) is residually less than the bound \(\ell!+m\) where \(\ell=m^{m^{m+3}}\). They obtained this result by associating to \({\mathcal V}({\mathfrak A})\) a finite ring with unit, \({\mathfrak R}={\mathfrak R}({\mathcal V}({\mathfrak A}),m)\), and relating the size of the subdirectly irreducible algebras in \({\mathcal V}({\mathfrak A})\) to the size of subdirectly irreducible \({\mathfrak R}\)-modules. Their final bound is based on two estimates. First they estimate that \(| R|\leq\ell=m^{m^{m+3}}\). Then they show that if \({\mathfrak R}\) is a ring of cardinality \(\ell\), the subdirectly irreducible \({\mathfrak R}\)- modules are bounded by \(\ell!\). Using these estimates and applying modular commutator theory leads them to their result. In ``Topics in algebra: injective completeness, fine spectra and relative presentability'' [Ph. D. Thesis, Univ. California, Berkeley (1988)], we asked whether there is a function \(f\) such that for any residually small variety \({\mathcal V}\) with the CEP that is generated by an algebra of cardinality \(m\), one has that \({\mathcal V}\) is residually less than \(f(m)\). This question was answered affirmatively by \textit{E. Kiss} and \textit{P. Prohle} [``Problems and results in tame congruence theory'', Prepr. No. 60, Math. Inst. Hung. Acad. Sci. (1988)]. Their proof does not produce a suitable function and no choice for \(f\) is known. We will show that, if \({\mathfrak R}\) is finite, no sudirectly irreducible \({\mathfrak R}\)-module can have larger cardinality than \(| R|\). This has the effect of removing the factorial sign in Freese and McKenzie's result. It has a second consequence of providing a tight bound on the size of subdirectly irreducibles in finitely generated, congruence modular varieties with the CEP.