Endoregular modules (Q2196337)

The authors investigate endoregular modules, that is, modules whose endomorphism rings satisfy various conditions related to von Neumann regularity. A ring \(R\) is called (one-sided) (unit-)regular if for each \(x \in R\) there is a (one-sided) (unit) \(y \in R\) with \(x = xyx\). A ring \(R\) is strongly regular if it is regular and abelian (i.e., idempotents are central), or equivalently for each \(x\in R\) there is a \(y\in R\) with \(x = x^2y\). Thus, a module is called (one-sided) (unit-)endoregular (resp., strongly endoregular, commutative endoregular) if its endomorphism ring is (one-sided) (unit-)regular (resp., strongly regular, commutative regular). The general relationship between these properties is: commutative endoregular \(\Rightarrow\) strongly endoregular \(\Rightarrow\) unit-endoregular \(\Rightarrow\) one-sided unit-endoregular \(\Rightarrow\) endoregular and none can be reversed. The authors view the purpose of the article as threefold: (1) Expand the general theory of these various forms of endoregularity (2) extend known results about endoregularity in abelian groups to modules over one-dimensional commutative rings with Noetherian spectrum and (3) generalize endoregular modules (over commutative rings) and then investigate their properties and characterize these modules. The paper contains a good introduction and extensive bibliography about the historical development of research on these topics. The article is well written and efficiently presents a large number of interesting results. There are many examples provided throughout to illustrate these properties as well as demonstrating when implications do not hold between properties.