Biseparable extensions are not necessarily Frobenius (Q2223520)

A ring extension \(R \subseteq S\) is called \textit{Frobenius} if~\(S\) is a finitely generated projective right \(R\)-module and \(S \cong \Hom(S_R, R_R)\) holds as \(R\)-\(S\)-bimodules; this notion is right-left symmetric and generalizes that of Frobenius algebra over a field. The extension \(R \subseteq S\) is \textit{separable} if the canonical multiplication map \(S \otimes_R S \to S\) splits as a morphism of \(S\)-bimodules; it is \textit{split} if the inclusion map \(R \to S\) splits as a morphism of \(R\)-bimodules. \textit{S. Caenepeel} and \textit{L. Kadison} [\(K\)-Theory 24, No. 4, 361--383 (2001; Zbl 1007.16011)] introduced the notion of biseparable module, which for ring extensions means that \(R \subseteq S\) is \textit{biseparable} if it is split, separable and finitely generated projective both as right \(R\)-module and as left \(R\)-module. They also posed the question whether every biseparable ring extension is Frobenius, which in the present paper is solved in the negative. A concrete example is constructed based on the Ore extension \(A[x; \sigma, \delta]\) of a finite-dimensional algebra~\(A\) over a field~\(\mathbb F\) with \(\mathbb F\)-automorphism~\(\sigma\) and \(\sigma\)-derivation~\(\delta\), so that \(x a = \sigma(a) x + \delta(a)\). It is proven that the ring extension \(R \mathrel {\mathop :} = \mathbb F[x] \subseteq S \mathrel {\mathop :} = A[x; \sigma, \delta]\) satisfies \(S \cong \Hom(S_R, R_R)\) as right \(S\)-modules if and only if~\(A\) is a Frobenius \(\mathbb F\)-algebra; in this case, the ring extension \(R \subseteq S\) is even Frobenius if and only if the Frobenius functional \(\varepsilon \colon A \to F\) satisfies \(\varepsilon \sigma = \varepsilon\) and \(\varepsilon \delta = 0\). It is also shown that the ring extension \(R \subseteq S\) is split if there is an \(\mathbb F\)-linear map \(\xi \colon A \to \mathbb F\) such that \(\xi(1) = 1\), \(\xi \sigma = \xi\) and \(\xi \delta = 0\). Finally, the extension \(R \subseteq S\) is separable provided that~\(A\) is a separable \(\mathbb F\)-algebra and the separability element~\(p\) satisfies \(\sigma^{\otimes}(p) = p\) and \(\delta^{\otimes}(p) = 0\) for the induced maps \(\sigma^{\otimes}, \delta^{\otimes}\) on \(S \otimes_R S\). Employing these observations, the example is constructed using the \(2 \!\times\! 2\)-matrices over \(\mathbb F_8 = \mathbb F_2(a)\) as algebra~\(A\), with component-wise Frobenius automorphism~\(\sigma\) and derivation~\(\delta\) given by \(\delta(X) = \big( \begin{smallmatrix} 0 & 0 \\ 0 & a \end{smallmatrix} \big) X - \sigma(X) \big( \begin{smallmatrix} 0 & 0 \\ 0 & a \end{smallmatrix} \big)\). Besides the detailed construction of this example, the paper provides interesting preparatory and additional results discussing Ore extensions with respect to Frobenius and separability properties. The exposition is elaborate and the computations are easy to follow despite the abstract nature of the original question.