A new approximation theory which unifies spherical and Cohen--Macaulay approximations (Q861855)

\textit{M. Auslander} and \textit{M. Bridger} [``Stable module theory'', Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 94 (1969; Zbl 0204.36402)] introduced a notion of approximation which they used to prove that every module, whose \(n\)-th syzygy is \(n\)-torsionfree, can be described as the quotient of an \(n\)-spherical module by a submodule of projective dimension less than \(n\). \textit{M. Auslander} and \textit{R.-O. Buchweitz} [Mém. Soc. Math. France (N.S.) No. 38, 5--37 (1989; Zbl 0697.13005)] introduced the notion of Cohen-Macaulay approximation which they used to show that the category of finitely generated modules over a Cohen-Macaulay local ring with the canonical module is obtained by gluing together the subcategory of maximal Cohen-Macaulay modules and the subcategory of modules of finite injective dimension. In this paper, the author introduces a new approximation theory which unifies the above two approximations. The main results of the author are the following. Theorem A: Let \(M\), \(C\) be finitely generated \(R\)-modules and \(n\) a positive integer. If \(C\) is \(n\)-semidualizing, then the following conditions are equivalent. i) \(\Omega^n M\) is \(n\)-\(C\)-torsionfree. ii) There exists an exact sequence \(0\to Y\to X\to M\to 0\) of \(R\)-modules such that \(X\) is \(n\)-\(C\)-spherical (i.e., \(\text{Ext}_R'(X, C)= 0\) for \(1\leq i\leq n\)) and \(C\dim_R Y< n\). Theorem B: If \(C\) is a finitely generated \(R\)-module such that \(R\) is \(n\)-\(C\)-torsionfree, then the following conditions are equivalent. i) \(\Omega^n M\) is \(n\)-\(C\)-torsionfree for any \(R\)-module \(M\). ii) \(\text{id}_{R_{\wp}} C_{\wp}<\infty\) for any \(\wp\in \text{Spec\,}R\) with depth \(R_{\wp}\leq n- 2\). Combining the above theorems, the author deduces that if \(C\) is an \(n\)-semidualizing \(R\)-module such that \(\text{id}_{R_{\wp}}C_{\wp}< \infty\) for any \(\wp\in\text{Spec }R\) with depth \(R_{\wp}\leq n- 2\), then the \(n\)-\(C\)-spherical \(R\)-modules form a contravariantly finite subcategory of \(\text{mod\,} R\).