The arrow is the canonical multiplication map, not an arbitrary abstract module isomorphism. Its inclusion into is . Dualizing identifies with the restriction . All these maps are surjective precisely when is injective, by the Baer criterion. The injective cogenerator of abelian groups detects injectivity of , and the Lambek theorem gives flatness. No Noetherian or finite-generation hypothesis is needed.
The divisible group is injective: every homomorphism extends to by choosing an th division of its value at , and the Baer criterion applies. It is a cogenerator because any nonzero element generates a cyclic subgroup admitting a character nonzero on that element, and injectivity extends that character to the whole group. Consequently a map of abelian groups is injective exactly when restriction is surjective: injectivity gives extension of characters, while a nonzero kernel element is detected by a character that cannot extend along .
For a domain satisfying the left Ore condition, its division ring of fractions is an injective essential extension of the left regular module. For a homomorphism on a nonzero left ideal, choose . A common left multiple gives , hence ; right multiplication by extends it. The Baer criterion proves injectivity. Clearing a left denominator proves essentiality. The same calculation gives , with the opposite ring required because right multiplications compose in reversed order.
Local criterion for injectivity over a Noetherian ring Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
For a Noetherian ring, injectivity of a module can be tested at all prime localizations. By the Baer criterion, test for every ideal . Localization of Ext over a Noetherian ring identifies its localization with the corresponding ideal test over . Every ideal of is extended from its contraction, and localization detects zero elements applies to the resulting Ext module even when it is not finitely generated. These observations prove both directions.
A uniform module is a nonzero module in which any two nonzero submodules intersect nontrivially. An essential extension means that is an essential submodule of : every nonzero submodule of meets . Since is a left Noetherian ring, the finitely generated is a Noetherian module.
Every nonzero Noetherian module contains a uniform submodule. Otherwise split a nonuniform submodule into two disjoint nonzero submodules, retain one for further splitting and set the other aside. If no uniform submodule is reached, the pieces set aside form an infinite direct sum, whose partial sums contradict the ascending chain condition. Now successively choose uniform submodules disjoint from the current direct sum. The process again must stop by Noetherianity, giving . At termination no nonzero submodule is disjoint from , so
This proves the finite uniform decomposition of a Noetherian module.
An injective hull is an injective module containing essentially. It is equivalently a minimal injective extension; we use the general existence theorem for injective hulls. To prove uniqueness, let be two hulls of . Injectivity of extends the identity on to . Its kernel is disjoint from and therefore zero by essentiality. Its image is injective, so its inclusion splits in . The complementary summand is disjoint from , hence zero. Thus is an isomorphism fixing .
A finite direct sum of injective modules is injective, and a finite direct sum of essential inclusions is essential. For the latter assertion, start with a nonzero vector and process its coordinates in turn: if a coordinate lies outside its specified essential submodule, multiply by a ring element taking that coordinate nontrivially into that submodule. Already processed coordinates stay inside their submodules; the chosen coordinate keeps the vector nonzero. Essentiality is also transitive. Consequently both and are injective hulls of , so uniqueness gives
The essential extension of a uniform module is uniform, since intersecting any two nonzero submodules with the original uniform module already gives a nonzero common intersection.
Write and . If is injective, its image is isomorphic to the injective module , hence is a direct summand. Uniformity leaves no nonzero complementary summand, so is an automorphism. Therefore the nonunits are exactly the noninjective endomorphisms. Let be their set. Two such maps have nonzero kernels, whose intersection is nonzero by uniformity; their sum kills this intersection. For a product, composition on the left preserves the original kernel. Composition on the right either has a noninjective right factor, or that factor is an automorphism and transports the original nonzero kernel. Thus is a proper two-sided ideal. Every element outside is a unit, so every nonzero residue class is invertible and every proper left or right ideal is contained in . This proves the local endomorphism ring of a uniform injective module assertion:
For the whole hull, let . Its endomorphism ring is the ring of finite block matrices
with multiplication given by summing compositions. The diagonal entries have the local rings just proved. Off-diagonal entries are homomorphism groups, not necessarily zero; in particular this ring is not generally the product of its diagonal rings. Repeated isomorphic summands give matrix blocks over their common local endomorphism ring.
For the left regular module of , the Bernstein filtration has graded ring , so finite leading-term cancellation proves that is left and right Noetherian and a domain. Let be its classical division ring of fractions. It is an essential extension of : a nonzero fraction satisfies in .
To prove that is injective, use the Baer criterion. For a homomorphism on a nonzero left ideal, fix . For any nonzero , take common left multiples with . Then , so in the division ring
Thus right multiplication by extends from to . The zero ideal is harmless. Hence is injective and . For any -linear endomorphism of , clearing the left denominator in gives . These are all right multiplications, and their composition reverses the multiplying elements. Therefore
The opposite ring in the injective hull of an Ore domain computation is essential for left-module conventions.
For an ideal , the canonical multiplication map
has image . Consequently the asserted isomorphism is the natural surjection being injective. This is the flatness criterion using ideals, whose proof follows from the extension criterion above.
Under the character Tensor-hom adjunction, the dual map identifies with
Indeed, for , its restriction corresponds to . If is injective, this restriction is surjective, so the cogenerator criterion makes injective. Conversely, if every is injective, every restriction map in this display is surjective. The proved Baer criterion then makes injective. Thus
In particular, (1) also implies (3) directly by tensoring . No finite-generation condition on , and no Noetherian condition on , has been inserted.
Put . The character module has the natural action
Additivity is immediate, and , using commutativity of . The identity of acts as the identity. We establish the extension and duality tools used in the four implications, so no flatness or injectivity criterion is assumed without proof.
An injective module is one for which every homomorphism from a submodule extends to . The Baer criterion says it suffices to test the inclusions of ideals . Necessity follows directly from the definition. For sufficiency, suppose every extends to . Given , use Zorn's lemma to choose a maximal extension inside ; extensions along a chain have a well-defined union. If , let
This is an ideal and an -linear map. Its extension to has the form for some . Then
is well-defined: if two expressions represent the same element, their coefficient difference lies in , where the two prescribed values agree. It extends to the strictly larger module , a contradiction. Thus , proving the Baer criterion for arbitrary modules and ideals.
The group is divisible. A homomorphism , for , extends to by choosing with equal to its value at ; the zero ideal causes no restriction. The proved Baer criterion over therefore makes injective. It is also a cogenerator: a nonzero element of an abelian group generates either a finite cyclic group of order , which maps to , or an infinite cyclic group, which maps to . Injectivity extends this character to the whole group. Thus every nonzero element is detected by an additive character.
It follows that a group homomorphism is injective exactly when
is surjective. For an injection, extension into the injective group proves surjectivity. Conversely, a character nonzero on an element of cannot be the pullback of a character on . This is the detection property of the injective cogenerator of abelian groups.
Finally, for any -module there is a natural character form of the Tensor-hom adjunction:
An -linear map gives the pairing . It is balanced because . Conversely a balanced additive pairing determines by this formula. The universal property of the tensor product of modules makes these constructions mutually inverse, and compatible with restriction maps.
Set , a multiplicative subset. The localization at a prime ideal is , whose elements are fractions . Equality of two fractions means that for some . Likewise the localization of a module is , with
Addition uses a common denominator, and the module action is
The equivalence relations make these operations well-defined, so is an -module.
If , choose . Its annihilator is proper, so it lies in a maximal ideal . The element cannot vanish in : vanishing would mean for some , contrary to . The converse is immediate by localizing the zero module. Thus
This proof of localization detects zero elements actually applies to arbitrary modules, without finite-generation or Noetherian assumptions. We will use that extra generality for an Ext functor module below.
An injective module has the extension property: for each inclusion , every map extends to a map . Equivalently, is exact. A projective module has the lifting property: for each surjection , every map lifts to . Equivalently, is exact, or is a direct summand of a free module.
For the local criterion for injectivity over a Noetherian ring, recall the Baer criterion: is injective precisely when every map from an ideal into extends to . Through the short exact sequence , this is equivalent to
We also need localization of Ext over a Noetherian ring. Because is Noetherian, the module has a free resolution with every term finitely generated: all successive kernels are finitely generated, so this can be built recursively. For a finite free term , the natural map
is an isomorphism, as is clear from a finite basis. Exactness of localization lets us pass to cohomology of the Hom complex. Therefore
This explains the finiteness hypothesis needed for the localization argument, rather than assuming that localization preserves injectivity automatically.
If is injective, the left-hand side vanishes for every and . Every ideal of is , where is its contraction to : if , then , and conversely localization of a member of the contraction stays in . Hence all ideal tests for vanish, and the Baer criterion over makes injective.
Conversely, suppose every is injective. For each ideal , the displayed Ext functor localization is zero at every prime. The zero-detection argument above gives , without needing this Ext module to be finitely generated. Applying the Baer criterion over proves
In fact, under the Noetherian ring hypothesis this equivalence holds for arbitrary ; the printed finite-generation assumption is more than is needed.
The global dimension is
where projective dimension is the smallest length of a projective resolution, or infinity if there is no finite one. If , every module is projective. Given an inclusion , the quotient is then projective, so the exact sequence splits. A retraction exists. For any module and any map , the composition extends . Thus every module is also injective. Global dimension zero makes all modules both projective and injective, as recorded by global dimension zero and split exact sequences.
A module is injective if every map extends across every inclusion . Baer criterion says it suffices to test inclusions of left ideals .
Necessity is immediate. Conversely, order all extensions of a given map to intermediate submodules of . A maximal one exists by Zorn's lemma. If its domain is not , choose and let . The map , , extends to by the hypothesis; its value at extends to , contradicting maximality. Thus .