The theta ideal, dense submodules and the forcing linearity number for a multiplication module (Q839720)

Let \(R\) be a commutative ring and \(M\) and \(R\)-module. Associated with \(M\) are the theta ideal \(\Theta (M)=\sum _{x\in M}(Rx:M)\) and the trace ideal \(T(M)=\sum_{f\in M^{\ast }}f(M)\). The \(R\)-module \(M\) is a \textit{multiplication module} if for each submodule \(N\) of \(M\), \(N=IM\) for some ideal \(I\) of \(R\). The ideal \(\Theta (M)\) has been used to study multiplication modules. This paper gives some interesting results on \(\Theta (M)\). We list a few. Now if \(M\) is a faithful multiplication module, then \( \Theta (M)=T(M)\) [\textit{D. D. Anderson} and \textit{Y. Al-Shaniafi}, Commun. Algebra 30, No. 7, 3383--3390 (2002; Zbl 1016.13002)]. It is shown if \(M\) is a multiplication module with \(\Theta (M)=T(M)\), then \(M\) is faithful. For a faithful multiplication module \(M\) it is shown that if \(IM \)\ is finitely generated, then \(I\)\ is finitely generated and \(I\subseteq \Theta (M)\) (the converse is given in the cited paper) and that \(IM\) is a multiplication module if and only if \(I\Theta (M)\) is a multiplication ideal. A submodule \(N\)\ of \(M\) is \textit{dense} if \(\sum _{f\in \Hom_{R}(N,M)}f(N)=M\). It is shown that a dense submodule \(N\) of a multiplication module \(M\) is multiplication and that \(N\) is dense in \(M\)\ if and only if \(ann(N)=ann(M)\) and \(\Theta (N)=\Theta (M)\). The paper ends by showing that if \(M\) is a multiplication module and \(f:M\rightarrow M\) satisfies \(f(ax)=ax\), then \(f\) is an \(R\)-module homomorphism.