Gorenstein flat covers of modules over Gorenstein rings (Q1913952)

A left and right Noetherian ring \(R\) is called Gorenstein if both \(_RR\) and \(R_R\) have finite injective dimensions. The authors introduce Gorenstein flat modules over a Gorenstein ring. This notion generalizes flat modules over an associative ring \(R\). Gorenstein projective modules and Gorenstein injective modules are also defined over a Gorenstein ring. Properties of these modules are discussed in section 2. It is shown that these modules behave very much like their classical counterparts over an associative ring. For an associative ring \(R\) and a class \(\mathcal X\) of \(R\)-modules, one can define a right (left) \(\mathcal X\)-approximation or \(\mathcal X\)-precover (preenvelope) for an \(R\)-module. But the existence of these is always a big question in the homological study of rings and modules. The main result of the paper is Theorem 3.9: Every module over a Gorenstein ring has a Gorenstein flat cover or a minimal right approximation by a Gorenstein flat module in Auslander and Reiten's terminology.