Corings with decomposition and semiperfect corings. (Q838982)

Let \(K\) be a commutative ring, \(A\) a \(K\)-algebra and \(\mathcal C\) a coring. The authors obtain several characterizations of the fact that the coring decomposes as a direct sum of finitely generated projective, as \(A\)-module, left subcomodules. In particular, this property is equivalent to the fact that the coring is projective as left \(A\)-module and there exists a set, \(\mathbf P\), of small projectives in the category of right \(\mathcal C\)-comodules verifying that its direct sum admits a decomposition of finitely generated \(R\)-submodules, where \(R=\bigoplus_{P,Q\in\mathbf P}\Hom_{\mathcal C}(P,Q)\). This result is a generalization of a classical characterization of right semiperfect coalgebras. Moreover, it is shown that for the preceding type of corings the rational functor is exact. In the last section, right semiperfect corings (i.e. every finitely generated right \(\mathcal C\)-comodule has a projective cover) and the case when the set \(\mathbf P\) has a unique element are studied.