The Jacobson radical is , where runs over the maximal right ideals. Every proper right ideal lies in such an : the union of a chain of proper right ideals containing is a right ideal and remains proper because it omits . Thus Zorn lemma applies.
The right-module form of Nakayama lemma says that a finitely generated module with is zero. More generally, if is a submodule and , then . To prove the first statement, suppose and take a generating set of minimal size. Since , there are with
The unit criterion for the Jacobson radical makes a unit. Hence is generated by the other , a contradiction. Apply this result to the quotient module to obtain the general form.
For an injective module endomorphism of an Artinian module , the descending chain condition gives
for some . Given , write ; injectivity of gives . Thus is surjective, as asserted by Artinian modules are co-Hopfian.
Now is a semilocal ring and is a finitely generated module over the right Artinian ring . A finite direct sum of copies of , and hence its quotient module , is an Artinian module. The module endomorphism induces on , and the given inverse-image condition says precisely that . The preceding argument makes surjective, so
The quotient module is finitely generated and satisfies . Applying Nakayama lemma yields . Therefore is surjective, by surjectivity from injectivity modulo the Jacobson radical.
An Artinian module is an -module satisfying the descending chain condition on submodules: every chain is eventually constant. An Artinian ring is a ring that is Artinian as a module over itself, so its descending chains of ideals stabilize.
We first prove the closure properties needed for finite generation. A submodule of an Artinian module is Artinian, because any descending chain in it is also a chain in the original module. A quotient module is Artinian, because inverse images turn a descending chain in the quotient into one upstairs. Conversely, consider a short exact sequence
with and Artinian. For a descending chain , the chains and both stabilize. Choose beyond both stabilization indices. If and , equality of the images gives with . Then
so . Hence . This proves the extension property of Artinian modules in a short exact sequence.
Apply this property inductively to . Every finite direct sum is Artinian when is an Artinian ring. If generate , the map is a surjection . The quotient property therefore proves
This argument also covers the zero module; it does not require a structure theorem for Artinian rings.
For a counterexample without finite generation, take any field and the module
The ring is Artinian, since its only ideals are and . But for every , since . Thus an infinite-dimensional vector space over a field provides the requested non-Artinian module.
Finally, let be an injective endomorphism with Artinian. Its image chain stabilizes, so for some . Given , choose with . Since is injective, . Therefore
This is precisely the assertion that Artinian modules are co-Hopfian.
For a finitely generated module on the right over a semilocal ring, the displayed condition makes the induced module endomorphism on injective. This quotient is an Artinian module, so Artinian modules are co-Hopfian makes that map surjective. The remaining quotient module equals its product with , and Nakayama lemma makes it zero.