The phantom cover of a module. (Q2381961)

A morphism \(f\colon M\to N\) of \(R\)-Mod is a `phantom morphism' if for any morphism \(g\colon A\to M\) with \(A\) finitely presented, the composition \(fg\) factors through a projective module. A phantom morphism \(c\colon M\to N\) is a `phantom precover' of \(N\) if for any phantom morphism \(g\colon M'\to N\) there is a morphism \(h\colon M'\to M\) such that \(ch=g\). A phantom precover \(c\colon M\to N\) is a `phantom cover' if every endomorphism \(h\) of \(M\) over \(N\) (\(ch=c\)) is an isomorphism. The main result is the following. Given a left \(R\)-module \(N\), there exists a short exact sequence \(0\to K@>k>>\text{Ph}(N)@>c>>N\to 0\), where the morphism \(c\colon\text{Ph}(N)\to N\) is the phantom cover of \(N\) in \(R\)-Mod and \(K\) is a pure injective \(R\)-module. The phantom cover is used to characterize when the functor determined by the association \(M\mapsto\text{Tor}_1(-,M)\) is faithful or full.