Some cardinality questions for flat modules and coherence (Q2534211)

For an infinite cardinal number \(\aleph\) a ring \(R\) is called left \(\aleph\)-Noetherian if any left ideal is generated by \(\aleph\) elements, and \(R\) is called left \(\aleph\)-coherent if any left ideal generated by \(\aleph\) elements has the form \(F/K\) where \(F\) is free and both \(F\) and \(K\) are generated by \(\aleph\) elements. It is proved that if \(R\) is either left \(\aleph\)-Noetherian or left \(\aleph\)-coherent with a left perfect classical right quotient ring, then any flat left R-module is a directed union of \(\aleph\)-generated flat submodules. However, there exists no universal cardinal number \(\aleph\) such that for any ring any flat module is a directed union of \(\aleph\)-generated flat submodules, since there exist arbitrarily large cardinal numbers \(\aleph\) and \(\aleph\)-Noetherian rings \(R\) for which there are flat \(R\)-modules not representable as directed unions of flat modules generated by less than \(\aleph\) elements. Next it is shown that for special classes of Noetherian rings any flat module is directed union of finitely generated projective submodules. In particular this holds for polynomial rings in two variables over a field. By results of P. M. Cohn this holds for polynomials in any number of noncommuting variables over a field. In the second part of the paper rings of formal power series with exponents in a fully ordered group and coefficients in a von Neumann regular ring are studied with respect to weak global dimension and coherence.