The cotorsion pair generated by the class of flat Mittag-Leffler modules (Q2400336)

Let \(\mathcal{FM}\) denote the class of all flat and Mittag-Leffler left \(R\)-modules, \(R\) an associative ring with 1. The class \(\mathcal{FM}^{\bot}\) denote the orthogonal class of \(\mathcal{FM}\) with respect to the left Ext functor and \(^{\bot}(\mathcal{FM}^{\bot})\) the orthogonal class of \(\mathcal{FM}^{\bot}\) with respect to the right Ext functor. \textit{S. Bazzoni} and \textit{J. Št'ovíček} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 140, No. 5, 1527--1533 (2012; Zbl 1256.16003)] proved that the cotorsion pair \((^{\bot}(\mathcal{FM}^{\bot}),\mathcal{FM}^{\bot})\) generated by \(\mathcal{FM}\) coincides with the pair generated by the flat \(R\)-modules for \(R\) a countable ring. In the main theorem of the paper under review, the same is shown to be true for all rings such that each flat left \(R\)-module is (filtered by) a totally ordered direct limit of projective modules. The final paragraph studies rings of this type. It is first shown by means of an example that there exist rings such that not all flats are a totally ordered direct limit of projectives and then it is shown that flat modules over left perfect rings, discrete valuation domains and \(\mathbb{Z}\) are indeed totally ordered direct limits of projective modules, while countable rings are filtered by totally ordered direct limits of projective modules. The main theorem therefore holds for modules over these types of rings and is indeed an extension of the work of Bazzoni and Šťovíček [loc. cit.]. Under the assumption that there do not exist inaccessible cardinals, it is shown in conclusion that if each flat module over a ring \(R\) is filtered by totally ordered direct limits of projective modules, then \(R\) is left \(n\)-perfect for some positive integer \(n\).