Flat covers in abelian and in non-abelian categories (Q2637922)

One of the most important theorems proved in the last decade in module theory is the existence of flat covers for all modules. This theorem was proved by \textit{L. Bican, R. El Bashir} and \textit{E. Enochs} [``All modules have flat covers'', Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 33, No. 4, 385--390 (2001; Zbl 1029.16002)]. In the main result of this paper (Theorem 2) it is proved that if \({\mathcal A}\) is a locally finitely presented left exact category such that pure exact sequences are conflations then every object \(A\) in \({\mathcal A}\) has a flat cover \(F\to A\). Moreover, an upper bound (which depends only on the cardinality of \(A\)) for the cardinality of \(F\) is provided. This theorem also generalizes similar results obtained for various types of abelian categories proved by \textit{S. T. Aldrich, E. E. Enochs, J. R. García Rozas} and \textit{L. Oyonarte} [J. Algebra 243, No.~2, 615--630 (2001; Zbl 0989.18008)], \textit{J. Cuadra} and \textit{D. Simson} [Commun. Algebra 35, No. 10, 3164--3194 (2007; Zbl 1131.16018)], \textit{E. Enochs} and \textit{L. Oyonarte} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 130, No.~5, 1285--1292 (2002; Zbl 0993.16001)], etc. In order to prove this theorem, the author introduces, for a skeletally small additive category \({\mathcal C}\), a new notion of small \({\mathcal C}\)-module and use this to introduce the purity \({\mathfrak p}M\) of a \({\mathcal C}\)-module \(M\). Then he proves another interesting result (Theorem 1) which states that if \({\mathcal C}\neq 0\) is a skeletally small additive category, then the cardinality of every \({\mathcal C}\)-module \(M\) is bounded by \({\mathfrak p}M^{w({\mathcal C})}\), where \(w({\mathcal C})\) is the weight of \({\mathcal C}\), introduced by \textit{D. Simson} [Fundam. Math. 96, 91--116 (1977; Zbl 0361.18010)]. In the proof of the main theorem it is used a corollary of Theorem 1: If \({\mathcal C}\) is a skeletally small additive category, and \(f:M\to N\) is a morphism of \({\mathcal C}\)-modules such that \(|M|>|N|^{w({\mathcal C})}\), then there is a non-zero pure submodule \(A\) of \(M\) with \(f(A)=0\). Some applications of Theorem 2 are presented in the second part of the paper: If \({\mathcal A}\) is a locally finitely presented left quasi-abelian category with enough flat objects then every small subobject of a flat object is contained in a small pure subobject which is flat, and every flat object is a direct limit of small flat pure subobjects (Theorem 3 and its corollary); flat covers exist for reflective full subcategories of locally finitely presented Grothendieck categories which are closed with respect to direct limits (Theorem 4), and for the category of separated continuous presheaves over a ringed space with a basis of quasi-compact open sets (Theorem 5).