Strongly minimal modules (Q1400877)

The paper is a detailed report of what is known about strong minimality in (right) modules over associative rings. In a general perspective, strongly minimal structures, in particular the \` \` pathologies'' singled out by Hrushovski among them and contradicting Zilber's Conjecture, are still very far from being completely understood. Within modules, things are more relaxed; for instance, it is easily seen that a module \(M\) is strongly minimal if and only if every proper pp-definable subgroup is finite, in particular strong minimality just coincides with minimality in this setting. Anyhow, many interesting problems arise when classifying strongly minimal modules. As said, the paper provides a wide panorama of this matter, collecting several previous contributions together, mostly of the author, but also of others. Firstly, commutative rings are considered; here, the description of strongly minimal modules over commutative Prüfer rings is illustrated. Divisible modules over integral domains are also treated in this commutative setting; indeed, strong minimality implies a weak form of divisibility, requiring that, for any \(r\) in the underlying ring \(R\), either \(Mr = 0\) or \(Mr=M\) (and so ensuring that \(M\) is divisible over the domain \(R/\text{Ann}_R (M)\)). Then, arbitrary rings are examined, and the main results about strongly minimal modules over rings with infinite center, or over right distributive rings, or over right Ore domains are recalled.