Top of an indecomposable projective module

ID: top-of-an-indecomposable-projective-module

For a nonzero finitely generated indecomposable module that is a projective module over a right Artinian ring , its top is a simple module. The Jacobson radical is a nilpotent ideal, so the top is nonzero; the quotient is a semisimple module over the semisimple ring . If it decomposed, a nontrivial idempotent of its endomorphism ring would lift by projectivity to an endomorphism of . The Hopkins-Levitzki theorem gives finite composition length, and the Fitting lemma makes the lift either invertible or nilpotent. Its induced map on the top would have the same property, impossible for that nontrivial idempotent.

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