Zaks' lemma for coherent rings. (Q2637773)

A famous result of Zaks asserts that if \(A\) is a right and left Noetherian ring with \(\mathrm{id}(A_A)\) and \(\mathrm{id}(_AA)\) both finite, then one has \(\mathrm{id}(A_A)=\mathrm{id}(_AA)\). Now assume that \(A\) is a right and left coherent ring (which is weaker than being Noetherian). Write \(C_A\) (respectively, \(_AC\)) for the direct sum of the injective hulls of all simple right (respectively, left) \(A\)-modules. It is proved that if \(\mathrm{fd}(C_A)\) and \(\mathrm{fd}(_AC)\) are both finite, then one has \(\mathrm{fd}(C_A)=\mathrm{fd}(_AC)\). This extends Zaks' result to right and left coherent rings because, as shown in the paper, the condition \(\mathrm{fd}(_AC)\leq n\) is equivalent to vanishing of the functor \(\mathrm{Ext}^{n+1}_A(-,A)\) on all finitely presented right \(A\)-modules. And in the case where \(A\) is right Noetherian, the latter condition is equivalent to \(\mathrm{id}(A_A)\leq n\) by Baer's criterion. The authors also show that the condition \(\mathrm{fd}(C_A)=\mathrm{fd}(_AC)\leq n\) is equivalent to several other conditions related to finiteness of (weak) Gorenstein dimensions.