No label defined (Q4496832)

This paper deals primarily with prime submodules of modules over a commutative ring. The height of a prime submodule \(K\) \((\text{ht }K)\) of an \(R\)-module \(M\) is said to be \(n\) if there exists a chain \(K_{n} \subset \ldots K_{2} \subset K_{1} \subset K_{0} = K\) of submodules of \(M\) but no such chain of greater length. If \(M\) is an \(R\)-module with submodule \(B\) which is generated by \(n\) elements and \(N\) is a minimal prime submodule of \(B\) such that \((N:M)\) is a minimal prime ideal of \(R\), then it is shown that \(\text{ht }N \leq n.\) The generalized principal ideal theorem (GPIT) is said to hold for an \(R\)-module \(M\) if for every positive integer \(n\) and every prime submodule \(N\) of \(M\) minimal over a submodule generated by \(n\) elements, \(\text{ht }N \leq n.\) It is shown that the GPIT holds for every divisible module over an integral domain and that GPIT holds for every \(R\)-module if and only if \(\dim R = 0.\) A module version of Krull dimension is introduced subsequently. The dimension of a module \(M\) \((\dim M)\) is defined by \(\dim M = \sup \{ \text{ht }N : N\) is a prime submodule of \(M \}\) if \(\text{spec}(M) \neq \varnothing,\) and \(\dim M = -1\) otherwise. If \(R\) is a Dedekind domain which is not a field, \(M\) is a finitely generated torsionfree \(R\)-module and \(N\) is a prime submodule, then it is shown that \(\dim M = \text{rank } M\) and \(\text{ht }N + \dim M/N = \dim M.\) For a finitely generated torsionfree weak multiplication module \(M\) over a Prüfer domain it is shown that \(\dim M = \dim R.\) It is known that a Noetherian ring of dimension 0 is Artinian. The paper concludes with a module version of this theorem by showing that a zero-dimensional Noetherian module is Artinian.