9 the Injective Envelope

9 The Injective Envelope. In Corollaries 3.6 and 3.11 we saw that every module RM is a factor of a projective and the submodule of an injective. So we would like to learn whether there exist such projective and injective modules that are in some sense minimal and universal for M, sort of closures for M among the projective and injective modules. It turns out, strangely, that here we discover that our usual duality for projectives and injectives breaks down; there exist minimal injective extensions for all modules, but not minimal projectives for all modules. Although we shall discuss the projective case briey, in this section we focus on the important injective case. The rst big issue is to decide what we mean by minimal projective and injective modules for M. Fortunately, the notions of of essential and superuous submodules will serve nice as criteria. Let R be a ring — initially we place no further restriction. n epimorphism superuous Ker f M A(n) f : M → N is essential in case monomorphism Im f –/ N So for example, if M is a module of nite length, then the usual map M → M/Rad M is a superuous epimorphism and the inclusion map Soc M → M is an essential monomorphism. (See Proposition 8.9.) 9.1. Lemma. (1) An epimorphism f : M → N is superuous i for every homomorphism g : K → M,iff g is epic, then g is epic. (2) A monomorphism f : M → N is essential i for every homomorphism g : N → K,ifg f is monic, then g is monic. Proof. (1) Note that fg is epic i Ker f +Img = M. SoifKerf M and fg is epic, then Im g = M. Conversely, let K M and let g : K,→ M. If Ker f + K = M, then fg is epic, so by hypothesis, K = M. The proof of (2) is dual. Let RM be a left R-module. A superuous epimorphism p : P → M with P projective is a projective cover af M. Dually, an essential monomorphism q : M → Q with Q injective is an injective envelope of M. For example, if R is a ring then the epimorphism R → R/J is a projective cover. If R is a P.I.D. with eld of fractions Q, then the inclusion RR,→ RQ is an injective envelope. As we shall see, every module has an injective envelope. For once our duality takes a vacation; not every module has a projective cover. Indeed, as we shall see in a moment, if the Z-module Z2 had a projective cover, the usual epimorphism Z → Z2 would have to be one. But clearly, this epimorphism is not superuous. So Z2 does not have a projective cover over Z. Non-Commutative Rings Section 9 65 We now prove that injective envelopes exist. 9.2. Theorem. If RM is a module over a ring R, then M has an injective envelope over R. Proof. First, by Corollary 3.11, we may assume that M Q for some injective module RQ. Then 0 there exists a submodule E Q maximal w.r.t. M –/ E Q. Next, there is a submodule E Q maximal w.r.t. E ∩ E0 = 0. So the obvious map g : E → Q/E0 is an essential monomorphism. If f : E,→ Q is the inclusion map, then by the injectivity of Q, there is a homomorphism h : Q/E0 → Q such that Q 6@I @ h f @ @ - - 0 0 E g Q/E commutes. Since f is monic and g is essential, h is monic. (See Lemma 9.1.) But then E =Imf –/ Im h so by the maximality of E,Imh = E. Hence, g is actually an isomorphism, so Q = E E0 and E is injective. That is, M,→ E is an injective envelope of M. The following characterization of injective envelopes will serve to prove their essential uniqueness. 9.3. Theorem. Let RM and RQ be left R-modules. Then for every monomorphism q : M → Q, the following are equivalent: (a) q : M → Q is an injective envelope; 0 0 0 (b) Q is injective and for every monomorphism q : M → Q with RQ injective, there exists a, necessarily split, monomorphism f : Q → Q0 with q0 = fq: f - 0 Q Q @I @ 0 q q M (c) q : M → Q is essential and for every essential monomorphism g : M → N there exists a monomorphism h : N → Q with hg = q h Q N @I q @ g M Proof. (a) =⇒ (b) Since q is a monomorphism and Q0 is injective, f exists with q0 = fq. But q0 is monic and q is essential, so by Lemma 9.1, f is monic and so it splits. 66 Section 9 (b) =⇒ (c) Since g is monic and Q is injective, h : N → Q exists with q = gh. But g and q are essential monomorphisms, so by Lemma 9.1, h is a monomorphism. (c) =⇒ (a) Let g : M → N be an injective envelope. Then by (c) there is a monomorphism → h : N Q with q = hg. Since N is injective, h splits. But Im hg Im h and Im hg =Imq –/ Q,so Im h = Q. That is, Q is injective. 9.4. Corollary. Let q : M → Q and q0 : M → Q0 be injective envelopes of M. Then there is an isomorphism f : Q → Q0 such that q0 = fq. In fact, if h : Q → Q0 is a homomorphism with q0 = hq, then h is an isomorphism. When projective covers exist, dual properties hold for them. We will leave the details of the following result to the reader. 9.5. Theorem. Assume that a module RM has a projective cover. Then for every epimorphism p : P → M, the following are equivalent: (a) p : P → M is a projective cover; 0 0 0 (b) P is projective and for every epimorphism p : P → M with RP projective, there exists a, necessarily split, epimorphism f : P 0 → P with pf = p0: 0 f - P P @ p0 @R © p M (c) p : P → M is superuous and for every superuous epimorphism g : N → M there exists an epimorphism h : P → N with gh = p h NP @ g @R © p M 9.6. Corollary. Let p : P → M and p0 : P 0 → M be projective covers of M. Then there is an isomorphism f : P → P 0 such that p = p0f. In fact, if h : P → P 0 is a homomorphism with p = p0h, then h is an isomorphism. Before we continue, maybe it would be in order to make a few general comments about Theorems 9.3 and 9.5. The rst says that q : M → Q is an injective envelope i it is a minimal injective extension of M in the sense that Q is a direct summand of every injective extension of M i it is a maximal Non-Commutative Rings Section 9 67 essential extension in that it factors through any essential monomorphism from M. Dually, if M has a projective cover, then an epimorphism p : P → M is a projective cover i P is a minimal projective in the sense that it is a direct summand of any projective with M as a factor i it is a maximal superuous epimorphism in the sense that p factors through any superuous epimorphism onto M. Thanks to the essential uniqueness of injective envelopes, we sometimes think of “the” injective envelope of RM as some given overmodule E(M)ofM for which the inclusion map M,→ E(M)isan injective envelope. As we shall see in the Exercises this is fraught with danger; so we must use some caution when we speak of “the” injective envelope of a module. We make some more remarks on this after the next couple of lemmas on properties of injective envelopes. 9.7. Lemma. If N M, then N –/ M i E(N)=E(M). ⇒ ⇒ Proof. (= ) N –/ M –/ E(M)= N –/ E(M) and E(M) injective, so E(N)=E(M). ⇐ ( =) Since N M E(N) and N –/ E(N), we have N –/ M. The next result follows immediately from (b) of Theorem 9.3. 9.8. Lemma. If M Q with Q injective, then Q = E(M) Q0 for some Q0 Q. The statements of these last two lemmas are both rather informal, but they illustrate well our sometimes casual use of “the” injective envelope. Lemma 9.7 stated properly should say that N –/ M i for every injective envelope q : M → Q of M, the restriction q|N : N → Q is an injective envelope of N. Similarly, the second, Lemma 9.8, should say that if M Q with Q injective, then there is an injective direct summand E Q with M,→ E an injective envelope. We’ll leave to you the task of rewording the next lemma to avoid any ambiguity. 9.9. Lemma. If M1,...,Mn M with M = M1 Mn, then E(M)=E(M1) E(Mn). Proof. It will suce to prove this for n = 2, for then an obvious induction takes care of the rest. So suppose that M = M1 M2 and that E = E(M). Then by Lemma 9.8 for i =1, 2we have E = E(Mi) Ei for some Ei E and some essential injective extension E(Mi)ofMi.Now ∩ 6 ∩ 6 E(M1) E(M2) = 0 and Mi –/ E(Mi) would force M1 M2 =0.SoE(M1) and E(M2) are independent. 0 0 Thus E(M1) E(M2) is an injective submodule of E ,soE = E(M1) E(M2) E for some E E.

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