Hereditary and formally smooth coalgebras. (Q2490352)

Let \(C\) be a coalgebra over a base field \(k\). The Hochschild cohomology of coalgebras was investigated by \textit{Y. Doi} [J. Math. Soc. Japan 33, 31-50 (1981; Zbl 0459.16007)]. An extension of \(C\) by a \((C,C)\)-bicomodule \(M\) is defined as an exact sequence \(0\to C\to D\to M\to 0\), where the embedding \(C\hookrightarrow D\) is a morphism of coalgebras such that \(D=C\wedge C\) (i.e. \(\Delta_C(D)\subseteq C\otimes D+D\otimes C\)). The dimension of \(C\) is defined as \(\dim_{C^e}(C):=\min\{n\mid\mathbb{H}^{n+1}(M,C):=\text{Ext}_{C^e}^\bullet(M,C)=0\) for every \((C,C)\)-bicomodule \(M\}\), where \(C^e:=C\otimes C^{op}\) is the enveloping coalgebra of \(C\). Doi showed that \(\dim_{C^e}(C)=0\) if and only if \(C\) is a coseparable coalgebra (i.e. \(C=C_0\), the coradical of \(C\), and the dual convolution algebras of subcoalgebras of \(C\) are separable). In the paper under review, the authors investigate coalgebras for which every extension is trivial and call them formally smooth. They show that \(\dim_{C^e}(C)\leq 1\) if and only if \(C\) is formally smooth if and only if \(\text{Coker}(\Delta _C)\) is an injective bicomodule. As a consequence, they show that the cotensor coalgebra \(T_C(N)\) of an injective bicomodule \(N\) is formally smooth, if \(C\) is formally smooth. They show also that if \(C\) is formally smooth, then \(C\) is (right) hereditary (i.e. quotient comodules of (right) \(C\)-comodules are also injective). In case \(C_0\) is coseparable, it is shown that \(C\) is formally smooth if and only if \(C\) is hereditary.