Loewy length of modules over almost perfect domains (Q2386033)

An almost perfect domain is a commutative integral domain \(R\) such that every factor ring \(R/I\), where \(I\) is a nonzero ideal of \(R\), is a perfect ring. Equivalently, \(R/I\) is a finite product of local rings whose maximal ideals are \(T\)-nilpotent. Almost perfect domains were characterized by \textit{S. Bazzoni} and \textit{L. Salce} in [J. Lond. Math. Soc. 66, 276--294 (2002; Zbl 1009.13003)] as precisely those rings for which every \(R\)-module has a strongly flat cover. Clearly this is a natural generalization of the result by Bass that perfect rings are those rings whose modules have a projective cover. Let \(R\) be an integral domain with quotient field \(Q\). Since every torsion module embeds into a torsion divisible module, it follows that the Loewy length of any torsion \(R\)-module is bounded above by the Loewy length of \(Q/R\). The purpose of this article is to construct for each integer \(n>0\), an almost perfect domain \(R_n\) with quotient field \(Q_n\) such that the Loewy length of \(Q_n/R_n\) is \(\omega(n+1)\) (i.e., the ordinal \(\omega\) times \(n+1\)). The method of construction involves techniques the second author developed in an earlier paper [J. Algebra Appl. 1 (4), 451--467 (2002; Zbl 1075.13010)] to construct an almost perfect domain \(R\) such that \(Q/R\) has Loewy length \(\omega 2\). The paper concludes by showing that the natural limit of these constructions is not almost perfect.