Invertible unital bimodules over rings with local units, and related exact sequences of groups. (Q2268605)

Let \(R\subset S\) be an extension of rings with identity element. \textit{Y. Miyashita} [J. Fac. Sci., Hokkaido Univ., Ser. I 21, 97-121 (1970; Zbl 0218.16018), Nagoya Math. J. 49, 21-51 (1973; Zbl 0239.16001)] constructed four exact sequences of groups, relating the Picard groups of \(R\) and \(S\), \(\Aut_R(S)\), \(\text{Inv}_R(S)\), the groups of units of the centers of \(R\) and \(S\) and of \(_S\text{End}_R(S)\), and \(\mathcal P(S/R)\). This last group is constructed from the monoidal category \(\mathcal M(S/R)\). The objects of \(\mathcal M(S/R)\) can be viewed as two-sided forms of \(S\)-bimodules. The authors generalize these exact sequences to the setting of extensions of rings \(R\subset S\) with a fixed set of local units \(E\). This means that for every finite set \(\{r_1,\dots,r_n\}\subset R\), there exists \(e\in E\) such that \(er_i=r_ie=r_i\) for all \(i\). The set \(E\subset R\subset S\) has to serve as a set of local units for both \(R\) and \(S\).