Monoids of modules and arithmetic of direct-sum decompositions

Abstract

Let $R$ be a (possibly noncommutative) ring and let $\mathcal{C}$ be a class of finitely generated (right) $R$-modules which is closed under finite direct sums, direct summands, and isomorphisms. Then the set $\mathcal{V}(\mathcal{C})$ of isomorphism classes of modules is a commutative semigroup with operation induced by the direct sum. This semigroup encodes all possible information about direct sum decompositions of modules in $\mathcal{C}$. If the endomorphism ring of each module in $\mathcal{C}$ is semilocal, then $\mathcal{V}(\mathcal{C})$ is a Krull monoid. Although this fact was observed nearly a decade ago, the focus of study thus far has been on ring- and module-theoretic conditions enforcing that $\mathcal{V}(\mathcal{C})$ is Krull. If $\mathcal{V}(\mathcal{C})$ is Krull, its arithmetic depends only on the class group of $\mathcal{V}(\mathcal{C})$ and the set of classes containing prime divisors. In this paper we provide the first systematic treatment to study the direct-sum decompositions of modules using methods from Factorization Theory of Krull monoids. We do this when $\mathcal{C}$ is the class of finitely generated torsion-free modules over certain one- and two-dimensional commutative Noetherian local rings.

Pacific Journal of Mathematics, to appear