In mathematics, a module over a (not necessarily commutative) ring is countably generated if it is generated as a module by a countable subset. The importance of the notion comes from Kaplansky's theorem (Kaplansky 1958), which states that a projective module is a direct sum of countably generated modules.
More generally, a module over a possibly non-commutative ring is projective if and only if (i) it is flat, (ii) it is a direct sum of countably generated modules and (iii) it is a Mittag-Leffler module. (Bazzoni–Stovicek)
In mathematics, an abelian group, also called a commutative group, is a group in which the result of applying the group operation to two group elements does not depend on the order in which they are written. That is, the group operation is commutative. With addition as an operation, the integers and the real numbers form abelian groups, and the concept of an abelian group may be viewed as a generalization of these examples. Abelian groups are named after early 19th century mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
In mathematics, the inverse limit is a construction that allows one to "glue together" several related objects, the precise gluing process being specified by morphisms between the objects. Thus, inverse limits can be defined in any category although their existence depends on the category that is considered. They are a special case of the concept of limit in category theory.
In mathematics, a Noetherian ring is a ring that satisfies the ascending chain condition on left and right ideals; if the chain condition is satisfied only for left ideals or for right ideals, then the ring is said left-Noetherian or right-Noetherian respectively. That is, every increasing sequence of left ideals has a largest element; that is, there exists an n such that:
In mathematics, a finitely generated module is a module that has a finite generating set. A finitely generated module over a ring R may also be called a finite R-module, finite over R, or a module of finite type.
In mathematics, a free module is a module that has a basis, that is, a generating set consisting of linearly independent elements. Every vector space is a free module, but, if the ring of the coefficients is not a division ring, then there exist non-free modules.
In mathematics, particularly in algebra, the class of projective modules enlarges the class of free modules over a ring, by keeping some of the main properties of free modules. Various equivalent characterizations of these modules appear below.
In mathematics, especially in the field of group theory, a divisible group is an abelian group in which every element can, in some sense, be divided by positive integers, or more accurately, every element is an nth multiple for each positive integer n. Divisible groups are important in understanding the structure of abelian groups, especially because they are the injective abelian groups.
In mathematics, especially in the area of abstract algebra known as module theory, an injective module is a module Q that shares certain desirable properties with the Z-module Q of all rational numbers. Specifically, if Q is a submodule of some other module, then it is already a direct summand of that module; also, given a submodule of a module Y, any module homomorphism from this submodule to Q can be extended to a homomorphism from all of Y to Q. This concept is dual to that of projective modules. Injective modules were introduced in and are discussed in some detail in the textbook.
In algebra, flat modules include free modules, projective modules, and, over a principal ideal domain, torsion free modules. Formally, a module M over a ring R is flat if taking the tensor product over R with M preserves exact sequences. A module is faithfully flat if taking the tensor product with a sequence produces an exact sequence if and only if the original sequence is exact.
In mathematics, a von Neumann regular ring is a ring R such that for every element a in R there exists an x in R with a = axa. One may think of x as a "weak inverse" of the element a; in general x is not uniquely determined by a. Von Neumann regular rings are also called absolutely flat rings, because these rings are characterized by the fact that every left R-module is flat.
In algebra, a Hilbert ring or a Jacobson ring is a ring such that every prime ideal is an intersection of primitive ideals. For commutative rings primitive ideals are the same as maximal ideals so in this case a Jacobson ring is one in which every prime ideal is an intersection of maximal ideals.
In mathematics, a Prüfer domain is a type of commutative ring that generalizes Dedekind domains in a non-Noetherian context. These rings possess the nice ideal and module theoretic properties of Dedekind domains, but usually only for finitely generated modules. Prüfer domains are named after the German mathematician Heinz Prüfer.
Hilbert C*-modules are mathematical objects that generalise the notion of Hilbert spaces, in that they endow a linear space with an "inner product" that takes values in a C*-algebra. Hilbert C*-modules were first introduced in the work of Irving Kaplansky in 1953, which developed the theory for commutative, unital algebras. In the 1970s the theory was extended to non-commutative C*-algebras independently by William Lindall Paschke and Marc Rieffel, the latter in a paper that used Hilbert C*-modules to construct a theory of induced representations of C*-algebras. Hilbert C*-modules are crucial to Kasparov's formulation of KK-theory, and provide the right framework to extend the notion of Morita equivalence to C*-algebras. They can be viewed as the generalization of vector bundles to noncommutative C*-algebras and as such play an important role in noncommutative geometry, notably in C*-algebraic quantum group theory, and groupoid C*-algebras.
In mathematics, an overring of an integral domain contains the integral domain, and the integral domain's field of fractions contains the overring. Overrings provide an improved understanding of different types of rings and domains.
Module theory is the branch of mathematics in which modules are studied. This is a glossary of some terms of the subject.
In abstract algebra, a module M over a ring R is called torsionless if it can be embedded into some direct product RI. Equivalently, M is torsionless if each non-zero element of M has non-zero image under some R-linear functional f:
In abstract algebra, a uniserial moduleM is a module over a ring R, whose submodules are totally ordered by inclusion. This means simply that for any two submodules N1 and N2 of M, either or . A module is called a serial module if it is a direct sum of uniserial modules. A ring R is called a right uniserial ring if it is uniserial as a right module over itself, and likewise called a right serial ring if it is a right serial module over itself. Left uniserial and left serial rings are defined in an analogous way, and are in general distinct from their right counterparts.
In algebra, the term Hermite ring has been applied to three different objects.
In abstract algebra, Kaplansky's theorem on projective modules, first proven by Irving Kaplansky, states that a projective module over a local ring is free; where a not-necessarily-commutative ring is called local if for each element x, either x or 1 − x is a unit element. The theorem can also be formulated so to characterize a local ring.
Jan Trlifaj is a Professor of Mathematics at Charles University whose research interests include Commutative algebra, Homological algebra and Representation theory.