Injective modules and divisible modules over hereditary rings. (Q2339581)

In this short but interesting paper, the authors study injective and divisible modules over (not necessarily commutative) integral domains. As, in general, divisible modules need not be injective, the authors define stronger notions of divisible modules, viz., \(\kappa\)-divisible and strongly \(\kappa\)-divisible modules, for any cardinal number \(\kappa\). For a ring \(R\) with right Goldie dimension \(\kappa\), the authors prove that every nonsingular strongly \(\kappa\)-divisible module is injective. Generalizing the notion of \(h\)-divisible module (introduced by Matlis for commutative integral domains) to general integral domains, they prove that a ring \(R\) is right hereditary and right Noetherian if and only if the class of all injective right \(R\)-modules coincides with the class of all \(h\)-divisible right \(R\)-modules. If \(R\) is a right fir with right Goldie dimension \(\kappa\), the authors prove that the class of all injective right \(R\)-modules coincides with the class of all \(\kappa\)-divisible right modules and hence deduce that the free algebra \(R=k\langle x_1,\ldots,x_n\rangle\) for a field \(k\), \(n\geq 2\), \(x_i\)'s are noncommuting indeterminates over \(k\), the class of all injective right \(R\)-modules coincides the class of all \(\aleph_0\)-divisible right \(R\)-modules. The authors prove that a ring \(R\) is right hereditary if and only if every singular homomorphic image of an injective \(R\)-module is injective. In the next section, the authors construct a divisible hull of a free \(R\)-module of rank one. For this, they first construct an extension \(M'\) of an \(R\)-module \(M\) such that every element of \(M\) can be divided by a nonzero element of \(R\) (here \(R\) is an integral domain) inside \(M'\). I feel that two more references might have been added. (i) \textit{H. Cartan} and \textit{S. Eilenberg}'s Homological algebra [Princeton Mathematical Series 19. Princeton: Princeton University Press (1956; Zbl 0075.24305)] where hereditary rings and divisible modules over commutative integral domains were first studied; (ii) \textit{L. Levy}'s paper ``Torsion-free and divisible modules over non-integral-domains'' [Can. J. Math. 15, 132-151 (1963; Zbl 0108.04001)].