Minimal pure injective resolutions of flat modules (Q1820206)

This paper examines the pure injective minimal resolution of a flat module F over a noetherian ring R. Starting from the fact that the pure injective envelope \(PE(F)\) of a flat module F over a noetherian ring \(R\) can be represented as: \(PE(F)=\oplus_{{\mathfrak p}\in\text{Spec} k}T_{{\mathfrak p}}\), where \(T_{{\mathfrak p}}\) is the completion of a free \(R_{{\mathfrak p}}\)-module, the author proves the following theorem on a minimal pure injective resolution of \(F: F\to PE(F) \to PE^ 1(F) \to ....\) Let \(\pi_ n({\mathfrak q},F)\) be the cardinality of a base of a free \(R_{{\mathfrak q}}\) module whose completion is \(T_{{\mathfrak q}}\), where \(PE^ n(F) = \prod T_{{\mathfrak q}}\), then: \(\pi_ n({\mathfrak q},F)=0\), \(\forall {\mathfrak q}\supsetneqq {\mathfrak p} \Rightarrow \pi_{n+1}({\mathfrak q},F)=0\), \(\forall {\mathfrak q}>{\mathfrak p}.\) As a consequence: \(\dim(R)<\infty\), \(n>\dim(R) \Rightarrow PE^ n(F)=0.\) This theorem is used to give new proofs of results about the projective dimension of flat modules and at the same time to sharpen these results. A characterization of the modules \(\prod T_{{\mathfrak p}},\) such that \(F\to \prod T_{{\mathfrak p}}\) is a pure injective envelope, enables to give a change of ring theorem and, as a corollary, the result that \(\dim(R_ 1)=\dim(R_ 2) \Rightarrow\) pure \(inj.\dim._{R_ 1}(R_ 1) =\) pure \(inj.\dim_{R_ 2}(R_ 2),\) for \(R_ 1, R_ 2\) coordinate rings of affine algebraic varieties over a field \(k\).