Uniserial dimension of modules. (Q397905)

A module \(N\) is called \textit{uniserial} if its submodules are linearly ordered by inclusion. The authors define and study a new dimension, called \textit{uniserial dimension}, this is an ordinal-valued invariant. The authors start with the ordinal 1, which corresponds to uniserial modules. To define uniserial dimension for modules over a ring \(R\), the authors define, by transfinite induction, classes \(\zeta_\alpha\) of \(R\)-modules for all ordinals \(\alpha\geq 1\). To start with, let \(\xi_1\) be the class of non-zero uniserial modules. Next, consider an ordinal \(\alpha>1\), if \(\zeta_\beta\) has been defined for all ordinals \(\beta<\alpha\), let \(\zeta_\alpha\) be the class of those \(R\)-modules \(M\) such that, for every submodule \(N<M\), where \(M/N\not\cong M\), we have \(M/N\in\bigcup_{\beta<\alpha}\zeta_\beta\). If an \(R\)-module \(M\) belongs to some \(\zeta_\alpha\), then the least such \(\alpha\) is the \textit{uniserial dimension} of \(M\), denoted \(\mathrm{u.s.dim}(M)\). For \(M=0\), define \(\mathrm{u.s.dim}(M)=0\). If \(M\neq 0\) and \(M\) does not belong to any \(\zeta_\alpha\), then we say that \(M\) has no uniserial dimension. The uniserial dimension is a measure of how far a module deviates from being uniserial. The authors study basic properties of uniserial dimension. It is shown that for a ring \(R\) and an ordinal number \(\alpha\), there exists an \(R\)-module of uniserial dimension \(\alpha\). The authors show that a commutative ring \(R\) is Noetherian (resp. Artinian) if and only if every finitely generated \(R\)-module has (resp. finite) uniserial dimension. The authors characterize rings whose modules have uniserial dimension. In fact, it is shown that every right \(R\)-module has uniserial dimension if and only if the free right \(R\)-module \(\bigoplus_{i=1}^\infty R\) has uniserial dimension, if and only if \(R\) is a semisimple Artinian ring.