Stable isomorphism of modules over one-dimensional rings (Q1821148)

Let R be a commutative ring. Two R-modules M and N are called stably isomorphic if \(M\oplus R^ n\simeq N\oplus R^ n\quad for\) some \(n\geq 1\). Assume in the following that modules are torsionfree, faithful and finitely generated and that R is reduced noetherian 1-dimensional with finite normalization \(\bar R.\) Let c be the conductor of R in \(\bar R\) and let \((R/c)^*\) be the group of units of R/c. Using cartesian squares, the authors have constructed a natural action of \((R/c)^*\) on torsionfree modules. - Main result: The orbit of a module M under this action is exactly the stable isomorphism class of M. Moreover \(M\oplus R^ n\simeq N\oplus R^ n\) if and only if \(M\oplus R\simeq N\oplus R.\) As an application, it is shown that if R is a 1-dimensional domain which is a finitely generated \({\mathbb{R}}\)-algebra with at most one singular real maximal ideal, then stably isomorphic modules of constant rank are isomorphic. The authors also prove that if M, N are stably isomorphic and of constant rank r, then \(M^ r\simeq N^ r\). Several examples show that the hypotheses cannot be significantly weakened.